Haapsalu Art School Galleries offer diverse exhibitions of works by its pupils and other artists. There are new exhibitions every 3–4 weeks. There are three different types of galleries: the house, yard, and cellar gallery. The house gallery is open year-round, the yard gallery opens in April, and the cellar gallery can be visited from May.

The timber-laced Kuursaal resort hall and the bandstand on the seaside promenade were built at the end of the 19th century and are the only ones of the kind that have survived in their original shape. From the first half of the 20th century until present day, the resort hall has been the centre of summer activities in Haapsalu.
Interesting to know: in 1898, the house was practically under water; later, the small coves of the bay on both sides of the building were filled and the embankment got its present shape. The resort hall with the bandstand was a favourite place of the Russian emperor’s court and the aristocracy from St. Petersburg. During the Soviet time, the resort hall was used as a storehouse.
National Register of Cultural Monuments

Of the interior of the church which dates back to the 13th century one should pay attention to the pulpit, chandeliers, organ, altar painting, H. Göseken’s epitaph and triumphal arch group.

In the churchyard you will see Estonia’s oldest wheel cross which reads Sitta Kodt Matz. According to a legend Matz had been gathering horse droppings, then fertilised the field with those and then he grew mighty rye there. He became so rich that he could get himself buried in the churchyard.

Estonia’s first professional composer Rudolf Tobias (1873-1918) is buried in the churchyard.

Nearby you will find Kullamaa Rohumägi – Estonians’ for of nearly 2000 m2 dating back to the 11th-12th centuries. Kullamaa is also the place where the oldest Estonian language signs were found.

Haapsalu’s main street, Karja, begins at the Swedish Market. The name of the street (“herd”) originates from the time when animals belonging to the citizens of the town were led out to pasture down this road. As late as the beginning of the 20th century, the Swedish Market was an empty square where the fish market was held. Many plots of land in the area belonged at that time to Estonian Swedes (or Coastal Swedish) families. In the 1930s, a small park with the town well was built here. To decorate the square, the sculpture “Boy With A Fish” was commissioned from the sculptor Juhan Raudsepp (erected in 1936).

Good to know: The fountain side is still a nice and romantic place to sit. During the summertime festivals such as August Blues and the White Lady Festival the Swedish Market is transformed into a small open air stage. 

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.