On the riverfront just beyond Tartu’s old town, where history gives way to modern lines and glass, a strange shape rises quietly into the skyline. It’s not a church steeple, or a fortress tower, or even a typical apartment block. It’s the Snail Tower — known in Estonian as Tigutorn — and it looks exactly like its name suggests: a sleek, spiraling shell of concrete and steel curling toward the clouds.

Built in 2008, the Snail Tower is one of the most striking examples of modern architecture in Tartu. At 23 stories, it held the title of the tallest residential building in Estonia outside Tallinn for years. But what makes it memorable isn’t the height — it’s the movement. The building appears to twist as it climbs, its outer edge wrapping around itself like a snail’s spiral or a turning page. It’s both futuristic and organic, oddly at home among the more angular 20th-century blocks nearby.

Designed by architect Vilen Künnapu, the tower wasn’t just a design flex — it was part of a broader vision to reimagine Tartu’s riverfront as a space of bold new living. The spiral structure was meant to symbolize growth, continuity, and the unfolding of time — a poetic nod in a city known for thinking deeply about the past.

It hasn’t always been universally loved. Some locals found its shape strange or out of place. Others nicknamed it affectionately or sarcastically. But as the years have passed, Tigutorn has quietly become one of the city’s architectural icons — featured in design blogs, postcards, and even student art projects.

From the top floors, the view is spectacular: the Emajõgi River curling through the city like a ribbon, the old town’s spires poking through trees, and Toome Hill rising in the distance. But even from the ground, the tower offers something — a sense of play, a break from the ordinary, a gentle reminder that even concrete can dream in curves.

It’s a snail that doesn’t crawl — it climbs.