Estonian Travels - Padise Manor

While driving back to Tallinn for our final night in Estonia we stopped for a supper in a small town on the back road. From an 18th c. Manor house we had a lovely meal and watched the (slowly!) setting sun across the grounds. 

Turns out it's the Padise Monastery, historic and large!

 Then, of course, we went exploring. That's what ruins are for!

 Around front, near the road, was the remains of a defensive wall. It is much later than the rest of the structures, as the main building had been a monastery.

 The monastery had been crumbling and partially dismantled until the turn of the century when it was decided to rebuild it. It's hard to tell what is original stonework and what was done by amature history enthusiest. The whole thing had lots of scaffolding to make us doubters feel safer.

 The courtyard, one can see lines where there had been floors stretching across the gap.

 It was dark inside, lit about how it would have been in the Medieval ages. Some windows up high to let in the setting sun. That and a lighter, our modern candle.

 Stairs winding up to the highest tower. Very steep, well worn, not ADA compliant. I watched a drunk Russian stick his malt liquor in his pockets to help haul up his mother in law. Nice folks though, they took this picture of us!

 Inside the old chapel had been fully restored, there was even a small bleacher of seating for events. It looks like people get married here, which would be frankly quite magical!

The original buttress finials were intact, carved with some iconography I could not immediately identify. Bearded men, lions?, knotwork... the usual Medieval church business.

After exploring the above ground sections we ventured downstairs. Dark, crumbling, cramped, basements were abundant. The last thing to be dismantled I suppose! They had some garbage, some graffitti, some remnants of satanic rituals - pretty standard castle cellars.

As far as randomly stumbling across a cool stop, this was probably our favorite in Estonia! It was a wonderful meal, and a very neat little jaunt into the Monastery. There's also a little gift shop, but one would have to be there earlier in the day. If you're on Rd. 17 to Tallinn, be sure to stop here!

Kickstarter - Almost there!

 Readers, as many of you know I have spent the last year launching and updating a webcomic - Root & Branch. (Click the link and go read it!)

It follows the story of a young Elf setting out on a journey of discovery to fulfill a secret quest. Last year I completed 116 pages of story, and it's ready to publish in print!

This means that it includes not only the same story pages from the Website, but also extra art for chapter covers. Not to mention the book cover!

We're about 80% funded (woohoo!) and with only six days to get that last fifth we need your help! In fact, I've created a Stretch Goal to encourage folks - Adult Coloring Pages. That's right, if we can not only meet the $2000 goal but shatter it and reach $3000 then all the backers will get coloring pages added to their rewards!

 There's other neat rewards available, besides the book (which is going to be AWESOME!) One could get lovely art prints, a cameo appearance in the story, or even a hand sewn tabard!

 If you cannot back the project (Click that linky right there,) please share with folks you know! Together we can make this thing!

Estonian Travels - Ungru Manor

Right outside of the Kiltsi Airbase, just a short jaunt from Haapsalu, is the crumbling remains of an opulent manor with a strange history - Ungru Manor. (Lindenhof)

The manor land was gifted from a Swedish king to a German aristocrat in 1629, and it remained a German vacation home until the modern era. The early buildings, which are now gone, were considered unremarkable. However, the garden was said to be the most beautiful in Estonia. Presumably any vestige of said garden was destroyed with the construction of the airbase.

The curious story of this house begins in the late 18th century. The son of the Count Sternberg, Edwald Ungern-Sternberg, inherited the land. He had been to the famous castle at Meersberg, and fallen in love with the daughter there. She loved her home and did not wish to leave, so he promised to build a replica for her at Ungru.

Construction began in 1893 and continued for a few years. When it was nearly complete word arrived from Germany that the young lady had died. Finishing work on the interior continued for years, then in 1908 the Count died on a trip to St. Petersburg. He was brought back to the Manor and spent a single night in the house, as a corpse.

The Manor was more or less abandoned. It was looted in both World Wars, more heavily in the first, and then by the Soviet occupation. In fact, the local folk began systematically dismantling it for building materials after all the valuables had been pulled out.

 A local family, now the owner of the land, has been looking after it. THey are attempting to preserve it for historic and tourism value, and prevent further damage.

 The exquisitely detailed walls were hauntingly empty, memories of the opulence that they must have held.

 Nature had pretty well taken back the site. The floorboards were long gone and plants carpeted the rooms and halls. If there had been a cellar level it was long since filled in.

 Folk has left graffiti and etched marks in the stone. A large percentage of the marks were Cyrillic, and not all of them old enough to be Soviet era. There is still a difficult relationship between Estonians and Russian transplants.

 I have never been to the castle in Meersburg, but Mr. Crafty assures me that it is much larger! There are, however, many architectural elements that are copied from the castle.

 From here we turned back towards Tallinn, but this would not be the last set of ruins we explored that day!

Be sure to check out all of our Travels in Estonia with the keyword list below!

Estonian Travels - Kiltsi Airbase

 After a lovely morning in Haapsalu we headed to an abandoned Soviet airbase - Kiltsi

Officially it is closed, and one is supposed to check in the the Estonian military before entering! We simply left a detailed note with our rental car parked outside the gate. Mostly to avoid the expense of the phone call...

 There is a good reason for such caution, the buildings are the finest in Soviet architecture (i.e. they were thrown up quickly with sub-par materials.) Thus, the occasional collapse makes this a slightly risky venture.

 Look at that lovely map! The good ol' CCCP...

 The offices and barracks in this building may have once been rather nice, the remains of patterned wallpaper and floor tiles remained.

 The entire area had been well graffitied, and the site of some drunken benders (judging by the garbage left behind.) We were far from the first to poke around in these abandoned spaces.

 A hobbit hole? No! These are large bunkers, for 50s-60s era fighter planes. The bumps are intended to both camouflage and protect the planes within. However, since Estonia is about as hilly as Kansas they had to make artificial bumps which would be rather obvious. Not to mention the miles of runway...

 From the back of each bunker extended a small mechanics room which exited into the forest which had sprung up on the untilled land.

 Many such spaces appeared to have been the temporary homes of  folks with heavy drinking habits.

 Ammunition bunkers, a few hundred yards from the plane bunkers. These were conceivably more hidden, but still connected by a net of obvious roads.

 Nature was doing a good job of taking back her space, growing up and over the man-made structures.

 There was a profusion of herbs and fruits, and I did pick some. However, the Soviets notably dumped large quantities of chemicals while pulling out to prevent their use by other parties. I wouldn't source too much of my diet from this potentially tainted ground until it's had a few more years to clear out. Nature is good at that.

 The bunkers were situated in semi-circles, with four in each set. There were dozens of sets and we had only time to explore two or three.

 It turns out that we were not the only ones ignoring the closure. As we walked around there were several people driving the old runways, and it appears that impromptu drag races and rallies were held here. Several spots had spray painted marks for driving tracks.

 It was, in fact, a rather lovely afternoon. The sun and breeze was pleasant, the birds and bees had returned to the area. Alas, although the sun appears to be high noon in this shot it was in fact late afternoon, and we had driving to do!

 Oh look! Just when you thought you were off the base, here's a machine gun position to wave good-bye.

More post to come, we are almost the entire way thru Estonia! Then, it's back to Finland for the final leg of our trip. (We are already planning a trip for this year, whew...)