Construction of the new museum started on October 6, and if everything goes according to plan, the museum will open to the public in July next year.
The museum’s cornerstone was laid on October 5.
“We’re hoping very much to give the city another tourist magnet,” says Kaire Tooming, who is in charge of the castle’s maintenance as a historic monument.
The exhibition planned for the new museum is about the medieval history of the Laanemaa, Saaremaa and Hiiumaa diocese. Tooming is hoping that visitor numbers will pick up, aiming for 60,000 to 65,000 a year, almost three times the castle’s current visitors.
The total cost of construction and putting together the exhibition is budgeted at some EUR 5.3 million, up to 85% of which will be financed by the European Union’s structural funds. The museum’s design is by architects Margit Argus, Margit Aule, Siim Karro and Laura Ojala of KAOS Architects in Tallinn. (ERR/Business World Magazine)