H IS FOR HAAPSALU
It is probably most notable as the place where artist Ilon Wickland grew up before escaping the Soviet invasion in 1944. Wickland fled to Sweden as a refugee, before eventually making her name as the illustrator of many books
by Astrid Lundgren, author of the Pippi Longstocking stories, amongst others. There's a gallery and even a themepark - Ilon's Wonderland - dedicated to Wickland's work.
As part of our tour of Estonian heritage, we were mostly interested in Haapsalu's 16th century castle, which has recently undergone extensive conservation and renovation work, overseen by Director Jaak Mäll.
Jaak treated the group to a tour peppered with his insider's insight - and bone dry wit. We were impressed by Jaak's interpretive light touch and sensitive curation. The decision to cap all text descriptions to a maximum of 1000 characters and to translate only into English was met with a chorus of approving nods. "Any longer and you should just buy the book," was his take.
We also liked his decision not to
fill the museum with fancy (and expensive) AV tech, in favour of some
robust hands-on interpretation.
How his approach would fare under the much
stricter health & safety regulations we have in the UK - the heavy
mock shoulder canons and portable lifesize pikes and halberds, for example, or
the hand-cranked gunpowder mill - remained moot.
Haapsalu
Castle offers free wifi to all its customers, allowing them to easily
look up whatever captures their curiosity without having to suffer
intermittent (usually non-existent) network coverage while deep inside
the three-foot thick stone walls of the castle, or rely on cumbersome
and unreliable audio guides ("They are for lazy people").
Ultimately,
this is a museum that talks up to its audience, not
down. Every decision here seems to be about respecting the visitors,
allowing them to make their own choices about how they get their
information, how deep they want to go with their experience.
You can find out more on the castle website.