Must-see attractions in Estonia

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    Estonian Open-Air Museum

    Tallinn

    This sprawling ethnographic and architectural complex comprises 80 historic Estonian buildings, plucked from across the country and resurrected in…

  • Kuressaare Episcopal Castle

    Western Estonia & the Islands

    Majestic Kuressaare Castle stands facing the sea at the southern end of the town, on an artificial island defended by stone-faced earth bastions and…

  • Narva Castle

    Estonia

    Begun by the Danes at the end of the 13th century and strengthened by successive owners including Germans, Swedes and Russians, this castle, along with…

  • Muhu Museum

    Western Estonia & the Islands

    Koguva is an exceptionally well preserved, traditional Muhu village, now protected as an open-air museum. One ticket allows you to wander through an old…

  • Pärnu Beach

    Western Estonia & the Islands

    Pärnu’s long, broad, sandy beach – sprinkled with volleyball courts, pop-up bars, cafes and changing cubicles – is the city’s main draw in summer. A…

  • Museum of New Art

    Western Estonia & the Islands

    Pärnu's former Communist Party headquarters now houses one of Estonia's edgiest cultural spaces, established in 1992 as the country's first museum of…

  • Schloss Fall & Keila-Joa Castle

    Western Estonia & the Islands

    Flat Estonia isn't known for its waterfalls and, at 6m, this one in Meremõisa isn't all that high. It's particularly picturesque, however, partly due to…

  • Padise Monastery

    Western Estonia & the Islands

    The great hulking shell of this burnt-out, 14th-century Cistercian monastery practically insists on exploration. Stairs lead up into the ruins, where you…

  • Matsalu National Park

    Western Estonia & the Islands

    A twitcher’s paradise, Matsalu is a prime migration and breeding ground for the Baltic and Europe generally: some 282 bird species have been counted here…

  • Pühtitsa Convent

    Estonia

    Built between 1885 and 1895, the five green onion-domed towers of Pühtitsa Convent, crowning Kuremäe (Crane Mountain), are visible for miles. Murals by…

  • Saaremaa Museum

    Western Estonia & the Islands

    Occupying the keep of Kuressaare Castle since the late 19th century, this museum is devoted to Saaremaa’s nature and history. A large part of the fun is…

  • Haapsalu Episcopal Castle

    Western Estonia & the Islands

    Haapsalu’s crumbling heart is its bishop’s castle, which was western Estonia’s centre of command from the 13th to the 16th centuries but now stands in…

  • Tahkuna Lighthouse

    Western Estonia & the Islands

    Dating from 1874, this 43m lighthouse watches over Tahkuna Peninsula’s northwest tip. Beyond the lighthouse stands an eerie memorial to the victims of the…

  • Rakvere Castle

    Estonia

    Originally a Danish stronghold of the 13th century, Rakvere’s star attraction is a hulking, atmospheric semi-ruin that now aims to transport visitors back…

  • Palmse Manor

    Lahemaa National Park

    Fully restored Palmse Manor is the showpiece historic building of Lahemaa National Park, housing the visitor centre in its former stables. The pretty…

  • Kolga Manor

    Lahemaa National Park

    The photogenically tumbledown, neoclassical manor house at Kolga dates from 1642, but was largely rebuilt between 1768 and 1820 by the wealthy Stenbock…

  • Viinistu Art Museum

    Lahemaa National Park

    It's extraordinary that an obscure, remote village near the top of the Pärispea peninsula should be home to one of the country's best galleries, yet…

  • Sagadi Manor & Forest Museum

    Lahemaa National Park

    Completed in 1753, this pretty pink-and-white baroque mansion is surrounded by glorious gardens (which are free to visit), encompassing a lake, numerous…

  • St Mary’s Church

    Western Estonia & the Islands

    Pöide, 3km south of the main highway, was the Saaremaa headquarters of the German Knights of the Sword and this fortress-church, built in the 13th and…

  • Tallinn Zoo

    Tallinn

    Boasting a broad collection of rare goat and sheep species, plus around 350 other varieties of feathered, furry and four-legged friends (including lions,…

  • Käsmu

    Lahemaa National Park

    Known as the 'Captains’ Village', from 1884 to 1931 tiny Käsmu was home to a marine school that churned out ship captains. At one stage it was said that…

  • Viidumäe Nature Reserve

    Western Estonia & the Islands

    Founded in 1957, this reserve covers an area of 26 sq km, with a 26m observation tower at Saaremaa’s highest point, Raunamägi (a vertigo-inducing 54m)…

  • Altja

    Lahemaa National Park

    First mentioned in 1465, this fishing village has many restored or reconstructed traditional buildings, including fishing sheds on the rocky point and an…

  • Angla Windmill Hill

    Western Estonia & the Islands

    Charge up those camera batteries: this is the site of the largest and most photogenic grouping of wooden windmills on the islands. By the early 16th…

  • Kaali Crater

    Western Estonia & the Islands

    Estonia has one of the world’s highest concentrations of documented meteor craters. At Kaali, 18km north of Kuressaare, is a 100m-wide, 22m-deep,…

  • St Catherine's Lutheran Church, Karja

    Western Estonia & the Islands

    The pagan and Christian meet in this fortress-like 14th-century church. Outside there’s an interesting panel about pre-Christian symbols with particular…

  • Sääre Tirp

    Western Estonia & the Islands

    Southern Kassari narrows to a promontory with some unusual vegetation and ends in the thin, 3km spit of land known as Sääre Tirp. An end-of-the-world kind…

  • Oru Park

    Estonia

    Oru Park was built around a grand palace in 1899 by Grigory Yeliseyev, at the time one of Russia's richest merchants. In 1935 it became the summer palace…

  • Kassari Exposition Building

    Western Estonia & the Islands

    Located in an old limestone lodge that once formed part of the local manor, and making up one-quarter of the dispersed Hiiumaa Museum, this small…

  • Kassari Chapel

    Western Estonia & the Islands

    There's no electricity supply to this pretty, whitewashed, thatch-roofed, Lutheran chapel (1801) at the eastern end of Kassari island, meaning that…

  • Rudolf Tobias House Museum

    Western Estonia & the Islands

    On the western edge of Käina, the early-19th-century wood-and-thatch birthplace and childhood home of Rudolf Tobias (1873–1918), Estonia’s 'first…

  • Suuremõisa Manor

    Western Estonia & the Islands

    Lending its name to the sleepy, surrounding settlement, this soberly symmetrical manor was built between 1755 and 1760 by Countess Ebba Margaretha…

  • Kõpu Lighthouse

    Western Estonia & the Islands

    With its pyramid-like base and stout square tower, the inland Kõpu lighthouse is the best-known landmark on Hiiumaa, and supposedly the third oldest in…

  • Promenaadi

    Western Estonia & the Islands

    Nineteenth-century Russian toffs, like their counterparts in Victorian England and Paris’ belle époque, liked nothing more than a good see-and-be-seen…

  • Tagamõisa Peninsula

    Western Estonia & the Islands

    Much of the beautiful and rarely visited western coast of the Tagamõisa Peninsula is protected as part of Vilsandi National Park, including the Harilaid…

  • Tarvas Statue

    Estonia

    This massive 7-tonne, 3.5m-high, 7.1m-long statue was completed by local artist Tauno Kangro to commemorate the town’s 700th anniversary in 2002. You…

  • St Michael’s Lutheran Church

    Western Estonia & the Islands

    Kihelkonna's tall, austere, early-German church dates from before 1280. It’s dark and gloomy inside, partly due to the wooden supports holding up the roof…

  • Long House

    Western Estonia & the Islands

    Built in the 1830s, this handsome, 60m-long timber house once lodged the directors of the Hiiu-Kärdla textile factory, burnt out in WWII. It's now perhaps…

  • St Lawrence's Lutheran Church

    Western Estonia & the Islands

    Although this large, single-naved, dolomite church was rebuilt in its present form in 1836, its prized feature is considerably older: a medieval stone…

  • Mihkli Farm Museum

    Western Estonia & the Islands

    Hidden away in the forest at Malvaste, 2km north of the Kärdla–Kõrgessaare road, this farm complex, founded by Swedes deported in 1781, is preserved as…

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