After the crusaders took the Estonian stronghold of Tartu in 1224, a residence for the Bishop of Tartu rose on the eastern edge of Toome Hill and was finished by the 1230s. The main castle stood on the site of the old hillfort, cut off from the cathedral by a moat with a bridge, and walls joined it to an outer bailey for soldiers and servants. It was damaged in the Livonian War and finally destroyed in the Great Northern War in 1708.
