What is it that makes so many doors and windows beg to be photographed? Is it that they intrigue us by hinting at what might lie beyond, if we were to open them? Or more simply, that they provide decoration and interest to what would otherwise be blank walls?

I enjoy photographing all sorts of architectural details but there is something especially interesting about doors and windows. Doors in particular present us with an array of patterns, colours, textures, and designs that can come to define our lasting impressions of a town, city or even a country. One such place, for me, was Tallinn.

As I walked around the oldest parts of the city, both the lower and upper towns, I was struck by the large number of beautiful wooden doors on the old buildings. They remain one of my abiding memories of a European city that became a firm favourite among the many I have visited.

The photo featured above is of the entrance to the Blackheads Guild House. Its door dates from 1640, but the hall to which it gives entry is even older, built mainly in the late 16^th century with a Dutch Renaissance façade. The Brotherhood of Blackheads was one of the most powerful of Tallinn’s medieval guilds. Its members were all young, single merchants and foreigners. This Brotherhood was founded sometime around 1399. It was active only in Estonia and Latvia, never taking hold in the rest of Europe.

Below is a selection of the many other striking doors of this beautiful city, posted in response to the Thursday Doors challenge:

_{I visited Tallinn in 2014 and 2015. Most of these photos were taken on my first visit.}