Fat Margaret

{{Short description|Wall tower in Tallinn, Estonia}}

{{expand Estonian|date=July 2023|topic=struct}}

File:Paks Margareeta (Fat Margaret) (377463242).jpg

Fat Margaret ({{Langx|et|Paks Margareeta}}, {{Langx|de|Dicke Margarethe}}) is a tower in Tallinn, Estonia.{{cite web |title=X-GIS(3) Portal |url=https://xgis.maaamet.ee/knravalik/knr?obj_id=100461911 |website=xgis.maaamet.ee |access-date=16 February 2022}} Nowadays, the tower is home to Estonian Maritime Museum.

The tower was built in the early 16th century (from 1511 to 1530) during the reconstruction of the medieval city gate system. The etymology of the tower's name derives from the fact that it was the largest part of the city's fortifications with walls measuring 25 meters in diameter, 20 meters in height and up to 5 meters thick. Apart from being a fortification against would-be invaders to the port of the town, it was also built to impress outside visitors arriving by sea.{{cite web |title=Great Coastal Gate and Fat Margaret tower |url=http://www.tourism.tallinn.ee/fpage/explore/attractions/az/newwin-place/print/id-174824 |publisher=Tourism.Tallinn.ee |access-date=15 March 2012 |archive-date=19 August 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140819083450/http://www.tourism.tallinn.ee/fpage/explore/attractions/az/newwin-place/print/id-174824 |url-status=dead }}

The tower is a defensive structure at the end of Pikk tänav (Pikk Street). Together with the Suur Rannavärav (Great Coastal Gate), a sixteenth-century arch flanked by two towers, it served to defend the harbour of Tallinn. Later, it was used as a storehouse for gunpowder and weapons, and then transformed into a prison, and was the scene of an outbreak of violence during the 1917 Revolution, when the prison guards were murdered by a mob of workers, soldiers and sailors.{{Citation needed|date=February 2022}} In the 1920s there were plans to convert it into an artists' home.{{cite news |title=Prison to Be Home of Art |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-roanoke-times-fat-margaret/157918267/ |work=The Roanoke Times |date=June 29, 1925 |location=Roanoke, VA |page=6 |access-date=October 27, 2024 |via=Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}} The tower was reconstructed from 1978 to 1981 to house the Maritime Museum.{{Cite web|title=The Great Coastal Gate|url=https://meremuuseum.ee/paksmargareeta/en/for-history-and-maritime-buffs/the-great-coastal-gate/|access-date=2022-02-13|website=Paks Margareeta|language=en-US}}