Snelli Pond

Snelli Pond (Snelli tiik), also Šnelli Pond (Šnelli tiik), is a pond in the Estonian capital Tallinn.

Snell Pond is located in the Old Town area of Tallinn's city centre, between Toompea Heights, Falgi Road, Toompuiestee and Nunne Street. In the 1960s there was a slipway on the Nunne Street side of Snell pond, where the wooden building at the end of the pond was used as a changing room.

On 15 September 2007, the charity campaign "AWARE 2007" took place, which included the event "Clean Snell Pond!". The pond has a surface area of 1 ha and a circumference of 1030 m.

History
The pond was formed by the moat surrounding Toompea Fortress, which was redesigned in the 19th century after the loss of the military importance of Tallinn Fortress as part of the parks and green spaces surrounding Tallinn Old Town.

The pond is named after 19th century Johan Schnell, who had a house between the present Toompuiestee and the pond. It was originally called the Patkul Ditch because of the Patkul Redoubt on its banks. The redoubt was named after Dietrich Patkul, the last deputy governor of Sweden, but when Schnell bought the land in 1868 and built his house and garden there, the Patkul ditch was called Schnell pond. Johann Schnell ran a gardening business on Vaksali puiestee until his death on 4 June 1890. The Schnells owned the land until 1904.

In 1939, the Tallinn City Council renamed the Schnell pond Toomtiig.