Tallinn’s beautiful Old Town hides a history rich in betrayal and subterfuge. (Matt Munro)
Hotel Viru stands on the periphery of Tallinn’s Old Town, just outside the city walls. It looks exactly how one might expect a Soviet hotel built in 1972 to look: a huge Modernist box, subjugating the skyline, topped with giant letters spelling out its name. It stands mere metres from the charming cobbled streets of the medieval city, but in architectural and philosophical terms it might as well be on Mars. Or in Moscow....