On the Promenade make a stop at the monument to Carl Abraham Hunniuse (1797-1851), who established the resort of Haapsalu. Dr. Hunnius was the first to notice that the local residents used the sea mud to find relief for their ailments and was inspired to start investigating the properties of the mud. At his initiative, the first therapeutic mud baths were established in Haapsalu in 1825. Interesting fact: Haapsalu was named an Imperial resort, and Russian Tsars Nicholas I, Alexander II, Alexander III and Nicholas II and their families all vacationed here and took the mud baths. Come and try a Haapsalu therapeutic mud bath in the Hestia and Fra Mare Spa hotels!

Haapsalu is the childhood hometown of the Ilon Wikland, illustrator of the books by world famous children’s book author Astrid Lindgren.  In the 1930s she lived with her grandparents in a yellow house on the corner of Linda and Rüütli streets. Wikland emigrated to Sweden in 1944. Her time in Haapsalu brought small town motifs to her drawings. In Ilon’s work you will find images of Haapsalu’s wooden houses, fortress walls and railway station. Interesting to know: Ilon Wikland donated 800 of her original drawings to Haapsalu as a gift. They are displayed in a gallery opened on Kooli street on the site of the children’s theme park Ilon’s Wonderland. Ilon’s childhood home can only be viewed from the outside. 

Artist Ants Laikmaa was born in the Vigala Rural Municipality in Lääne County on 5 May 1866.  A. Laikmaa studied painting in St. Petersburg and at the Academy of Arts in Dusseldorf; his favourite technique was pastel. He mostly painted natural landscapes and portraits of Estonian intelligentsia and the farmers of West Estonia. The artist made his last home in Lääne County in the village of Kadarbik. The house was constructed according to the artist’s own drawings and it is surrounded by a gorgeous natural park. The ground floor of the home museum houses an exhibition about the life of the master. On the upper floor, you will find his studio, study and bedroom with personal belongings and ethnographic antiquities.

Risti railway station was the place from where most of the deportees from Läänemaa – almost 3000 people – were deported to Siberia. The monument designed by Viljar Ansko “The railway rails remember…” has been placed on a small freight platform with stone stairs on both sides. Four rails reach for the sky from the four corners of the platform. The rails are joined into a cross with two horizontal bars just before the top. At night the monument is illuminated diagonally by four spotlights installed inside the railway platform. The height of the monument is almost 13 metres. Besides commemorating the mass deportations in recent history, the cross also symbolises the history of the small railway town Risti.

The historic building has accommodated a school for almost 200 years, making it one of the oldest schools in Haapsalu. The oldest part of the schoolhouse was built at the end of the 18th century, the newest part in 1928. The completely renovated school that re-opened in 2013 is now called Läänemaa Upper Secondary School; formerly, it was named in the honour of linguist and scientist F. J. Wiedemann. Some years ago the schoolhouse got an extension – a sports hall, which is the most contemporary sports facility in town. One can cheer for their favourite team there, rent the gym for sport games, use the body building centre and the sauna. The building belongs in the National Registry of Cultural Monuments.

Uuemõisa manor a few kilometres away from the centre of Haapsalu was first mentioned in 1539 when it was an Episcopal manor. The last owner before the compulsory sale of the manor, which in the 17th century belonged to the de la Gardie family, was princess Yevgeniya Shakhovskaya. In 1833 a two-storey post-classicist main building was constructed in the manor. In the 1920s the building was reconstructed based on the design made by Karl Burman. As a result, long one-storey wings were added to the building. All of this made it an immensely long building. At present are in the manor Uuemõisa kindergarten and Primary School. The White Hall of the manor is a good place for concerts.