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| Tallinn City Tourist Office & Convention Bureau | JANUARY 2006 |
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| Vabaduse väljak 7, 15199 Tallinn, Estonia • www.tourism.tallinn.ee | |
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Olde Hansa opens a medieval shop Cabaret makes a comeback at the Viru Hotel! A new life for Radisson SAS Hotel’s rooftop café Estonian Air to open routes to Dubrovnik and Simferopol Tallinn Card enjoys high season success The Museum of Estonian Architecture is expanding its permanent exhibition KUMU Art Museum to open in February! |
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Olde Hansa opens a medieval shopCenturies ago, the building that currently houses the medieval-style Olde Hansa restaurant was a place where fine imported goods were sold. Now that building is once again performing its original, historical function: in early December, Krambude, a medieval odds and ends shop, was opened on the restaurant’s ground floor. The goods available at Krambude are items based on genuine, centuries-old wares, and include silver jewellery, glassware, leather products, textiles, and even authentic medieval knickers. All products on sale are made in cooperation with Olde Hansa’s chief artist and recognised Estonian masters of handicraft. Under the guidance of the shop’s matron, Maritha, Krambude will further Olde Hansa’s mission to introduce medieval culture to a wider audience. Krambude hopes to offer a considerable alternative to other souvenir shops in Old Town, particularly with respect to buyer-seller relations and the style of trading. Trading takes place from 9 am to 9 pm, and anyone who finds the commercial process exhausting is welcome to restore their strength at the Olde Hansa restaurant. Further information: Cabaret makes a comeback at the Viru Hotel!On January 6th, the Sokos Hotel Viru began hosting a series of exclusive cabaret nights, marking the return of a time-honoured entertainment tradition. Bearing the name “Grande Cabaret”, the events consist of a classic, French-style revue programme and a three-course, full service dinner. By hosting the events, the hotel aims to provide entertainment that will appeal to more mature audiences, as well as to bring back the kind of classical variety theatre that has been a staple of the Estonian stage since the 1920s. In fact, this is also the revival the hotel’s tradition as well, since high-quality variety shows were performed here from the time the Viru was first opened in 1972 all the way up to the mid-1990s. The new “Grande Cabaret” programme includes French-style performances “Ritz” and “Great Glamour” by the dance group Catherin & Boys, featuring operetta stars Tõnu Kilgas, Katrin Karisma and Irina Haak. After the 45-minute show, the ensemble “Mellow Tunes” will keep the audience twirling on the dance floor. The cabaret nights start at 7:30 pm and last for three pleasant and memorable hours. The event is held at the Sokos Hotel Viru’s Merineitsi restaurant every Friday and Saturday through the end of March. Anyone who appreciates entertainment and good food is welcome. Hotel guests and non-guests alike can buy tickets to the show, and bookings can also be made for bigger groups or conference parties. Tickets cost 550 EEK (35 EUR) per person, which includes the programme, a welcome drink and a gourmet dinner that can be ordered on the spot from a special menu. Further information on the “Grande Cabaret” performances: Booking of tables and tickets: A new life for Radisson SAS Hotel’s rooftop caféLounge 24, the café on 24th floor of the Radisson SAS Hotel, has made some radical changes – it has a completely new look and it’s now open year-round! Located 90m above street level, the café offers unforgettable views of the city and seaside, as well as a stylish interior, light meals and cocktails. The lounge, which was previously open to the general public only in summer months, will now spend most of the year serving a dual function: the space will be available for events and press conferences by day, but will also be open for sophisticated socialising and romantic meetings by night. The 60-person lounge was also given a brand new, modern and minimalist design, which complements the airy effect created by the large windows. After dark, its swank feel is accentuated by various modes of lighting. During the summer months, the café’s outdoor terrace is the prime attraction, but even during winter, guests can get the same magnificent views from Lounge 24’s windows, which offer panoramas in three different directions. Light dishes, with an emphasis on integrity and diversity, make up most of the menu, and there is also a large choice of desserts available. The drinks list is equally varied, with non-alcoholic beverages and large number of exciting cocktails on offer. Through April 21, Lounge 24 will be open 5pm – 2am daily; from April 22 to May 31, it will be open 5pm – 2am Monday to Friday, and noon – 2 am on weekends; and from June to early September noon – 2am daily. Hours for the winter months have yet to be determined. Further information: Estonian Air to open routes to Dubrovnik and SimferopolIn 2006, Estonian Air will open two new air routes: Tallinn-Dubrovnik and Tallinn-Simferopol. Both services will operate during summer season only. Regular flights to the Croatian holiday resort of Dubrovnik will run each Wednesday and Saturday from April 19th until October 28th. On both days, the 3-hour flight departs from Tallinn at 6:35 am and from Dubrovnik at 9:15 am. One-way tickets purchased via the Estonian Air homepage start from 1,175 EEK. Flights to Simferopol, the administrative centre of the Republic of Crimea, will operate from April 1st until October 28th. This new destination has proved very popular among Estonian and foreign citizens alike, and due to high demand, a second flight has been added to the weekly schedule; thus, starting from May 1st there will be regular flights on Tuesdays in addition to Saturdays. On Saturdays, the flight will depart from Tallinn at 8:20 am, and from Simferopol at 12:00 pm. On Tuesdays, the flights depart from Tallinn at 11:45 am, and from Simferopol at 3.25 pm. The flight duration is 3 hours. When buying through the Estonian Air homepage, the cheapest one-way fare, with all taxes included, is 1,355 EEK. Further information: Tallinn Card enjoys high season successTallinn’s tourist discount card, the Tallinn Card, is proving to be more popular than ever. Statistics show that sales of the card during 2005’s high season jumped by 39% compared to the same period the year before. From April to September, 12,292 cards were purchased, an increase of 3,453 cards from the 2004 high season. Tallinn’s Town Hall proved to be the most popular destination among Tallinn Card holders. During the April–September period, it chalked up nearly 5,000 Tallinn Card visits. Other favourites were the spire of St. Olav’s Church, the Kadriorg Palace and the Tallinn City Museum, which were each visited by over 3,000 people who had bought the card. As for free sightseeing tours offered by Tallinn Card, the highest number of visitors – nearly 6000 people – took the Tallinn Official Sightseeing Tour organised by the Reisiekspert travel agency. 380 visitors used the card for the bicycle tours and 470 went on walks through Old Town using the Audioguide. Additional information: The Museum of Estonian Architecture is expanding its permanent exhibitionIn coming summer, the Museum of Estonian Architecture will open an attractive, new permanent exhibition in its freshly renovated main hall, a space recently freed up by the Art Museum of Estonia. For the past several years, space in the Rotermann Salt Storage building was divided between the Museum of Estonian Architecture and the Art Museum of Estonia, the latter using the ground-floor main hall for temporary exhibitions. However, last summer, in anticipation of the art museum’s move to its new home in the KUMU, the building’s main hall was given over to the Museum of Architecture, paving way for the creation of a new, permanent exhibition. The bulk of this new exhibit will be made up of models of buildings and settlements, the oldest of these models dating to the 1860s and 1890s. The exhibition will also include the so-called “Greater-Tallinn model”, a macro-model to which small models of new city buildings can be added step by step as they are built. There are also plans in the offing to open a “drawer exposition”, which will be made up of large, extractable pallets or drawers that contain projects, drawings and picture materials. Each drawer covers a different topic such as Estonian wooden architecture, Estonian functionalism, Greater-Tallinn, the general plan of Tallinn and the latest in Estonian architecture. To accommodate the exhibition, the newly acquired hall will be made slightly bigger and will be divided into different slopes, all the while preserving its transparency and spaciousness. In addition to the exhibition area, the main hall will be given a bookstand, a café and a reading corner where visitors can leaf through architecture magazines and where presentations of new architecture-related books will be held. There will also be a separate room for screening films. During the main hall’s reconstruction, the museum has been operating as usual, open Wednesday to Sunday from 11 am to 6 pm. Visitors can see the permanent exhibition “Architecture and History” in the basement gallery, as well as temporary exhibitions on other floors. The first temporary exhibition of 2006, “Estonian Theatre 100”, opened on January 12th. This exhibition, which is devoted the history of Estonian theatre and theatre buildings, marks the 100th anniversary of professional theatre in the country. It runs until February 26th, and will be followed by a temporary exhibition entitled “Estonian National Museum's new building”. This will present projects that were submitted to an international competition to design a new building for the Estonian National Museum, and can be seen until the end of March. In April, a visiting exhibition from Vienna, “Austrian contemporary city planning and architecture”, will be on display, and an interesting exhibition of Estonian railway stations is planned for late spring. Founded in 1991, the Museum of Estonian Architecture moved into its present building, the Rotermann Salt Storage, in 1996. The stone building itself dates to 1908. The museum receives and average of 25,000 visitors each year. Further information: KUMU Art Museum to open in February!On February 18, after 14 years of planning and construction, the pivotal KUMU Art Museum will open its doors to the public. The massive, seven-storey complex will serve as the new home of the Art Museum of Estonia and will house the largest permanent exhibition of Estonian art in the nation’s history. Designed by Finnish architect Pekka Vapaavuori, the ultra-modern museum contains three floors of exhibition space, totalling a full 5000 m² in area. The permanent exhibition on the third floor presents the classics of Estonian art from the 18th century to 1945, the fourth floor is devoted to art created during the 1945-1991 period, and the fifth floor is occupied by contemporary art exhibitions. The KUMU’s second floor will be home to its first temporary exhibition, “Shiftscale”, the biggest exhibition of contemporary art ever held in Estonia. This international exhibition includes works by thirty authors, and was created using a variety of contemporary media forms: photo, video, installation and sculpture. “Shiftscale” will remain open for three months. Like most contemporary museums, the KUMU was designed to be multifunctional. Its high-tech, 246-seat auditorium includes two interpretation booths and a 15-person meeting room, and is versatile enough to host art events, concerts, performances, movie nights and conferences. The museum boasts a sophisticated educational centre, whose study rooms and second floor studios are equipped with everything necessary for learning and creating art. The educational centre also organises tours led by guides, teachers or art theorists. The KUMU’s first floor is home to a museum shop and a small café, the latter of which has a summer terrace for 100 people. In addition, there’s a 40-seat restaurant on the second floor of the building, and on upper floors, two terraces with views on the Kadriorg Park, city centre and beyond. The KUMU project began 14 years ago with a decision by the Estonian government to back the creation of a new art museum in Kadriorg. Pekka Vapaavuori won the international architectural competition held in 1993-1994, and construction of the museum was started in 2002. During the winter period (October-April), the KUMU Art Museum is open from 11 am to 6 pm Wednesday to Sunday, and in the summer period (May-September) from 11 am to 6 pm Tuesday to Sunday. On February 23rd and June 22nd the museum will be open until 3 pm. The museum is closed on national holidays. Further information about exhibitions, special packages and prices: |