Bank of Estonia in Tallinn reinforces its building with dolomite boulders

The Bank of Estonia, the country's central bank, is strengthening the protection of its building in central Tallinn on the Kentmanni Street side by placing large dolomite boulders in front of it. The report comes from ETV's news programme "Aktuaalne kamera".

Why the boulders

Over the past 20 years, drivers speeding and/or drunk on Vabaduse Square have crashed into the bank's wall about twenty times. To prevent such incidents, a barrier of stones has been put up in front of the building. The bank's management also recalls the "Bronze Night" unrest, when the building was, by sheer luck, kept safe.

Rait Roosve, adviser to the bank's board, said the bank's block holds a great deal of property that belongs not to the bank but to the Republic of Estonia, and indeed to its residents, so it must be guarded at the highest possible level.

Limits of the barrier

Because the site is public urban space, the central bank cannot and does not want to build a wall there. The row of stones is meant to ensure the safety of ordinary road traffic and to stop passenger cars and small trucks. The structure is not a defence installation: it would not shield the building from tanks. Roosve explained that the stone is Estonia's national stone, limestone, more precisely dolomite, brought from Kaarma on the island of Saaremaa. A tank would be slowed, he said, but given the mass of the boulders and of a tank, the advantage would purely physically lie with the tank. Still, it would not let a tank ram the building's wall directly.

Timeline and greenery

The project, carried out together with the Tallinn city government, is to be completed by the end of next week. Grasses planted by the stones should hide the boulders by next July, making the area in front of the bank on Kentmanni Street greener than it is now.