Haapsalu Photo Thread By Tin_Can

[Tin_Can]

I bet most of you are asking - What? Where? Never heard of it...

History

Well,Haapsalu is small town (population 11,966) in Lääne county,western Estonia. Haapsalu was founded in 1260s and gained it's city rights in 1279. During middle ages Haapsalu became powerful center of Bishopric of Ösel-Wiek (or Ecclesia Osiliensis,for those of you who speak latin) Most visible part of this era is Haapsalu castle,built for ruling bishops. After bishopric was sold to danes in 1560,town started losing its importance. It took several hundred years until town started regaining its lost glory - this time as a popular resort town.

Town's coat of arms and flag


Few interesting facts

Haapsalu was one of official resort towns for Russian tzars in late 1800s - early 1900s.

Famous composer Tchaikovsky visited and worked in Haapsalu for a while.

Haapsalu castle has interesting visual phenomen of female figure appearing on Dome Curch's southern window during the full moon nights in August. According to the legend during middle ages woman and man fell in love and man secretly brought lady into the the castle. However no female's were allowed to be within castle territory (some religious thing,castle was basically monastery back then). After bishop found out about it,he ordered man to be thrown into castle's dungeon and woman to immured alive in the wall of the dome crurch. After that she started appearing on Dome Curch's window,waiting for her love there.

Haapsalu has railway station and museum but no railway! Only short line in front of station is all that is left of Tallinn-Haapsalu railway line (1905-2004).

Photos
But enough of talk already,time for photos. I'll update this thread every now and then,so be patient.
Btw,if anyone has taken some nice pics of Haapsalu - feel free to post them here.

Let's start with few pics from the town
1

2 former fire station.

3


More to come soon...

[Tin_Can]

4 Some spa's.


5 View from coast promenade.


6

[Tin_Can]

Haapsalu Episcopal castle.

7 Main gate.


8 Remains of the gunpowder storage.


9 Inner castle with St. Nicolas Dome Church.


10 Some cannons.


11 Exterior wall.


12 Tower on the outer wall.

[Tin_Can]

Haapsalu's railway station.

13


14


15


16 Few random trains from the railway museum...


17


18

[SEAfan]

Absolutely lovely, Tin Can, thanks a lot!

Our world is really full of Haapsalus (and of course also somewhat larger places), and yet we spend most of our time talking about our countries' capitals, dreaming of the Big Ones: Hong Kong, New York ...

The Haapsalu railroad station is a poem! Too bad it's been relegated to museum status.

And wow, that Bishop's Castle is quite something! Thanks for sharing the legend.

[Nõgesh]

Although I don't think I've ever been to Haapsalu myself and I'm not proud of that, it still seems to be a lovely small town. Thanks for sharing the pics!

[Rebasepoiss]

A railway museum without a railway connection really is something
But hey, it's the town where Tchaikovsky loved to stay and it is indeed lovely.

[mjoks007]

I was there some years ago. Cute little town

[Tin_Can]

Thank you all!

@ SEAfan - I agree,such small towns are often overlooked,while in fact they have lot more charm and personality than large cities.

@ Nõgesh - You should visit it. Haapsalu has its own distinctive look and feel, what even most other small towns don't have. Best time of visit - from June to August.

[Tin_Can]

19 Maria-Magdalena church (Built 1845 -1852).



20 St.John's church (Originally used as a warehouse.Reconstrution est. 1524 -1789)



21 Street behind St.John's church. Looks like you will have to wait a whole day to see a car here .

[Tin_Can]

Some random architecture from Haapsalu...

22



23 "Apartments for sale"



24 This villa,built in 1850s, can also be seen on pic no.5

[christos-greece]

Haapsalu town looks really very nice @Tin_Can and i love this photo:

[Tin_Can]

Few more photos from the castle.

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26


27

[Tin_Can]

This thread has gathered enough dust already,so it's time to resurrect it Obviously,photos of Haapsalu,this time from this year (2010) Only major difference is slightly changed photo resolution (I hope most of you don't complain..if you do,then it's time to upgrade your displays )

Oh,and one more thing - I've noticed that some sites,forums etc. use my photos. That's okay,as long as you all keep in mind that you can do it only if you credit photographer(in this case - me).Remember kids,good manners!

Anyway,here are the photos (they come in pretty random order and throughout entire summer,so...):

28 Entrance to Haapsalu (the Ääsmäe–Haapsalu highway) is currently dusty construction site.


29


30 Wannabe commieblock area near Kastani street.


31 View from viaduct on Haapsalu-Lihula highway,southern Haapsalu.


32 Like any other similar small town,Haapsalu is troubled with shutdown businesses & factories. This here is gate of Haapsalu Leivatehas (bakery,bankruptcy in 2007 or 2006,I can't remember exact date)

[Wover]

Hey, thanks for the pictures . One town I haven't been to yet .

And let me be the first to complain about the picture size .

I have a big screen (22" widescreen) with a 1680*1050 resolution. If I scroll to the right I can see the pictures in full size, but still it's a bit too big imho :p.

But I know chosing a resolution is quite hard and a lot of people are still using 1024*768..

I would go for a 1000 * 750 resolution for your pictures. That way, people with 1024*768 won't have to scroll that much.

[Tin_Can]

Yeah,current resolution is best for full HD displays (I don't have to scroll anything ) It might not look so good idea now,but you all thank me later,when you see those 180° panoramas I took near the sea (just be patient,it takes some time to edit & upload photos)

[Tin_Can]

33 Residential buildings near Lihula highway. Town border isn't far from it.


34 Rather typical Haapsalu street. You get either this or more historic,wooden houses.


35 Houses on Ääsmäe–Haapsalu highway.


36 Asian fast food.


37 Random house.

[Vecais Sakarnis]

Panoramas should be posted big, I agree. But why you post that big regular pictures? And especially those where there is nothing tiny or detailed just one or several houses, or street is visible.
You know, most people use laptops nowadays (laptops for several years are sold more than classic pcs), and I haven't seen a laptop with full HD resolution yet...

[Tin_Can]

Mkay,before someone else complains,I'll switch back to usual photo resolution for common photos & use 1600 pixel width only for panoramas (and only in this thread) I'll try that with my next update.

It seems that technology has not caught up with SSC photos threads yet

[Tin_Can]

38 Water park on Lihula highway.


39 Few photos from Posti street. Commieblock on the right is actually a water tower.


40


I also revisited castle & took some new photos there. I tried to avoid repetitive shots,so most of it should been unseen before.

41 Haapsalu castle and one of it's gates.


42 Looking back,behind a corner is a nice bar/restaurant.