Lighthouses of Estonia

Estonia is a small country with a surprisingly long coastline. Surrounded on 2-1/2 sides by water, it faces the Gulf of Riga on the southwest, the Baltic Sea on the west, and the Gulf of Finland on the north. There are two large islands in the Baltic, Saaremaa and Hiiumaa, and countless small islands. To guard these coasts, Estonia has more than 70 lighthouses and a well-developed lighthouse administration. Its major port, formerly called Reval, is now the Estonian capital of Tallinn.

Estonia was part of the Russian Empire until the end of World War I in 1918, and then it was incorporated into the Soviet Union from 1940 to 1990. Thus the older lighthouses are from the Russian Imperial period, and some of the newer ones are of Soviet construction. An example from the imperial period appear at right: the old Suurupi lighthouse, built in 1760.

Lighthouses in Estonia are operated by the Estonian Maritime Administration. In Estonia, a lighthouse is a tuletorn (fire tower) or amajakas.  These three maximum cards show three of the many lighthouses in Estonia.

Thank you Ella.

Town Hall Square in Tallinn

Raekoja plats (Town Hall Square) is a town square beside Tallinn Town Hall in the center of the Tallinn Old Town in Tallinn, Estonia. It is a venue for numerous small festivals or concerts like Tallinn Old Town Days, and several bars and restaurants are located in the near vicinity. The square also hosts a market regularly, with many stalls selling traditional Estonian items and souvenirs.

There has been a town hall in Tallinn since at least 1322 and a town square next to it ever since then. The hall was rebuilt from 1402 to 1404 into its current form, and a Christmas tree display has been held in the square since 1441, making the Tallinn Christmas tree display over 570 years old.

The Tallinn Town Hall is a building in the Tallinn Old Town, Estonia, next to the Town Hall Square. It is the oldest town hall in the whole of the Baltic region and Scandinavia. The building is located in the south side of the ancient market square and is 36.8 metres long. The west wall is 14.5 metres in length, and the east is 15.2 meters. It is a two-storey building with a spacious basement. The wind vane “Old Thomas” on the top of the Town Hall's tower, that has been there since 1530, has become one of the symbols of Tallinn. The height of the tower is 64 metres.

  

Thank you Ella for this nice card. I am sure you had a lovely break there.

Centenary of the Opening of traffic on the Valga-Moniste-Gulbene-Pjavinas narrow gauge railway in 1900.

The history of rail transport in Estonia starts in 1870 when a line was opened connecting Paldiski, Tallinn, Tapa and Narva; the line extending all the way to St. Petersburg in Russia.

Ella sent me this card which was issued to commemorate the Centenary of the Opening of traffic on the Valga-Moniste-Gulbene-Pjavinas narrow gauge railway in 1900.

The Estonian Maritime Museum's Seaplane Harbour

The Estonian Maritime Museum's Seaplane Harbour was named as a nominee for the European Museum of the Year Award (EMYA) 2014. 

The Seaplane Harbour of the Estonian Maritime Museum was opened in May 2012 and has had more than 550,000 visitors since. In 2014, the steam-powered icebreaker Suur Tõll will celebrate her 100th birthday. For that occasion, she will be renovated and a new exhibition describing her history will be prepared. The icebreaker will be reopened to the public on 19 June 2014.

With the help of modern multimedia, the Seaplane Harbour in the wooden architecture suburb Kalamaja tells exciting stories about the Estonian maritime and military history promising a “sea full of excitement” for the whole family on an area that would take nearly 2 million A4 paper sheets laid down side by side. The museum’s display, that comprises of more than a couple of hundred large exhibits, revitalizes the colourful history of Estonia.

British built submarine Lembit weighing 600 tones is the centrepiece of the new museum. Built in 1936 for the Estonian navy, Lembit served in the World War II under the Soviet flag. It remained in service for 75 years being the oldest submarine in the World still in use until it was hauled ashore in 2011. Despite its long history, Lembit is still in an excellent condition offering a glimpse of the 1930s art of technology.

Another exciting attraction is a full-scale replica of Short Type 184, a British pre-World War II seaplane, which was also used by the Estonian armed forces. Short Type 184 has earned its place in military history by being the first aircraft ever to attack an enemy’s ship with an air-launched torpedo. Since none of the original seaplanes have survived, the replica in Seaplane Harbour is the only full-size representation of the aircraft in the whole World.

Simulators mimicking a flight above Tallinn, around-the-world journey in the yellow submarine, navigating on the Tallinn bay make this museum heaven for kids or adventurous adults.  

Seaplane Harbour operates in architecturally unique hangars built almost a century ago, in 1916 and 1917, as a part of Peter the Great sea fortress. These hangars are the World’s first reinforced concrete shell structures of such a great size. Charles Lindbergh, the man who performed the first solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean, landed here in 1930s. In 2012 the hangars were rewarded with best concrete building of the year title.  

On the outdoor area visitors can tour a collection of historic ships, including the Suur Tõll, Europe's largest steam-powered icebreaker.

Thank you Ella.

110th Anniversary of Estonia's first narrow gauge Barnu to Balga route

This maxicard was issued with the special stamp and postmark to celebrate the 110^th Anniversary of Estonia's first narrow gauge (750 mm) Barnu to Balga 125 km route which was opened to traffic on October 05, 1896. The stamp and card were released at Tallinn on 17.10.2006.

The Barnu station building is shown on this card.

Thank you Ella for this nice card.

135th Anniversary of Haapsalu Railway Station

135^th Anniversary of Haapsalu Railway Station. 

Haapsalu is a major seaside resort town set on the West Coast of Estonia located approximately 100km south-west from Tallinn, Estonia.  Haapsalu established in 1279, is well-known for its historic and maritime ambience, warm sea water, curative mud baths and friendly residents. It's a wonderful little town with narrow streets for families and romantic couples who enjoy having picnics, walking, visiting spas and taking mud baths, sailing and swimming.

The Keila-Haapsalu railway line was constructed between 1903 and 1905 to serve the resort town of Haapsalu - a favourite among the Russian aristocracy.

Erected to the designs of architect Karl Werheim, the grand historicist-style station building not only had an area for passengers but also a summer cafe and an imperial pavilion. The unusually long covered platform makes the station complex unique. The old railway embankment has been rebuilt as part of the County health trail, which offers a range of options for sports and hiking along a route from Riisipere via Haapsalu to Rohuküla. The railway station's waiting area also serves as a bus station.

Thank you Ella.

Estonian Museum Railway in Lavassaare

Estonian Museum Railway in Lavassaare – is the biggest narrow-gauge railway museum in the Baltic States and one of the biggest in Europe, where there are more than 65 items of rolling stock exhibited. The first narrow-gauge railway in Estonia was opened on the 5th October 1896 between the towns of Pärnu and Valga. In summertime runs the museum train and it is possible to organize a picnic in a picnic train.

Lavassaare Railway Museum. The third-largest museum of its kind in whole of Europe, Estonia's narrow gauge railway museum displays a whole host of locomotives from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as well as equipment and other train-related artefacts. Best of all, on Saturdays visitors can ride the museum's own train, which runs from Lavassaare (see website for schedule). The museum is only open between June and September, but anyone dropping by the rest of the year will still get a look at the dozen or so engines in the yard.

Thank you Ella for this pretty card.

Pärnu

Pärnu is a city in southwestern Estonia on the coast of Pärnu Bay, an inlet of the Gulf of Riga in the Baltic Sea. It is a popular summer vacation resort with many hotels, restaurants, and large beaches. The Pärnu River flows through the city and drains into the Gulf of Riga. The city is served by Pärnu Airport.

Pärnu is a health resort of international stature. In addition to guests arriving from around fifty countries, it is also proved by its membership in the European Spas Association (since 2000) and the European Flag that has been flying at the beach of Pärnu since 2000. Many tourists in Pärnu are Finns and Estonians. Hotel and restaurant staff speak English, Russian and some Finnish in addition to Estonian.

Thank you Este for this card. 

The Barn Swallow

This lovely maxicard from Estonia was given to me by Merja. This stamp and the card was issued to celebrate the fact that the swallow was declared the The Bird of the Year in Estonia. 

The Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) is the most widespread species of swallow in the world. It is a distinctive passerine bird with blue upperparts, a long, deeply forked tail and curved, pointed wings. It is found in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas. In Anglophone Europe it is just called the Swallow; in Northern Europe it is the only common species called a "swallow" rather than a "martin".

There are six subspecies of Barn Swallow, which breed across the Northern Hemisphere. Four are strongly migratory, and their wintering grounds cover much of the Southern Hemisphere as far south as central Argentina, the Cape Province of South Africa, and northern Australia. Its huge range means that the Barn Swallow is not endangered, although there may be local population declines due to specific threats, such as the construction of an international airport near Durban.

The Barn Swallow is a bird of open country which normally uses man-made structures to breed and consequently has spread with human expansion. It builds a cup nest from mud pellets in barns or similar structures and feeds on insects caught in flight. This species lives in close association with humans, and its insect-eating habits mean that it is tolerated by man; this acceptance was reinforced in the past by superstitions regarding the bird and its nest. There are frequent cultural references to the Barn Swallow in literary and religious works due to both its living in close proximity to humans and its annual migration. The Barn Swallow is the national bird of Austria and Estonia.

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral

The Alexander Nevsky Cathedral is an orthodox cathedral in the Tallinn Old Town, Estonia. It was built to a design by Mikhail Preobrazhensky in a typical Russian Revival style between 1894 and 1900, during the period when the country was part of the Russian Empire. The Alexander Nevsky Cathedral is Tallinn's largest and grandest orthodox cupola cathedral. It is dedicated to Saint Alexander Nevsky who in 1242 won the Battle of the Ice on Lake Peipus, in the territorial waters of present-day Estonia. The late Russian patriarch, Alexis II, started his priestly ministry in the church. The Alexander Nevsky Cathedral crowns the hill of Toompea where the Estonian folk hero Kalevipoeg is said to have been buried according to a legend. (There are many such legendary burial places of him in Estonia.) The cathedral was built during the period of late 19th century Russification and was so disliked by many Estonians as a symbol of oppression that the Estonian authorities scheduled the cathedral for demolition in 1924, but the decision was never implemented due to lack of funds and the building's massive construction. As the USSR was officially non-religious, many churches including this cathedral were left to decline. The church has been meticulously restored since Estonia regained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Ella sent me this card.

Estonia - Tallinn

Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It occupies a surface of 159.2 km² (61.5 sq mi) in which 406,573 inhabitants live. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the banks of the Gulf of Finland, 80 km (50 mi) south of Helsinki.

The picture shows the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral on the left and the Dome Church on the right.