Lahemaa National Park Sights

  1. Forest Museum

    The impressive, fully restored Sagadi Manor houses a Forest Museum, with exhibits on the park's flora (notably mushrooms) and fauna (stuffed animals). The collection of chainsaws and hunting rifles is impressive indeed. On the grounds is a decent hotel.

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  2. Palmse Manor

    The restored Palmse Manor and park at Palmse, 8km north of Viitna, is the showpiece of Lahemaa. In the 13th century a Cistercian monastery occupied the land, and it was later developed as a private estate by a Baltic-German family (the von der Pahlens) who ran the property from 1677 until 1923 (when it was expropriated by the state).

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  3. Sea Museum

    The former Soviet coastguard barracks at Käsmu (Captains' Village) now shelters the Sea Museum. In the 1920s a third of all registered boats in Estonia belonged to this village; at one time there were 62 long-distance captains living here. From 1945 to 1991 the entire national park's coastline was a military-controlled frontier, with a 2m-high barbed wire fence ensuring villagers couldn't access the beach or sea.

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