The Maritime Museum in Estonia is about to get a massive facelift when it re opens in May this year
Originally founded in 1935, main exhibition of The Estonian Maritime Museum is currently located inside a cannon tower called the Fat Margaret in the centre of old Tallinn.
Spread over four floors of exhibits this window into the maritime history of Estonia includes exhibits on ship yards and boat building sheds, ports, navigational aids used onboard ships and lighthouses
For years the Museum had been searching for a harbour in which to display its growing museum fleet.
Then in 2003 came the opportunity to do just that when a disused Seaplane hanger was offered for development.
The edifice was not in the best of conditions to put it mildly but after some basic maintenance the first ship was ready to be transferred onto the new site.
She is the ice-breaker Suur Tõll and she arrived there on January 26th, 2004. By the end of that year, all the museum’s other ships had been re homed inside Seaplane Hanger.
Other exhibits include the British built Submarine Lembit, and a Short Type 184 seaplane.
Work on the museum has not been of the fastest kind. In fact it took until 2007 to get the design plans finalised.
Construction did not begin until 2010 but now two years later the museum is about to proudly open its doors to a patient public
Future plans include enlarging the open air areas that surround the hanger and in the future the hanger will be the starting point of the coastal promenade that will stretch to the centre of Tallin.
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