TALLINN | Lennusadam Seaplane Harbour Estonian Maritime Museum

August 2025. We’re travelling to the Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and more specifically their respective capitals Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius. Are they interconnected by rail? Yes, but not in the most straightforward or userfriendly way possible. The Rail Baltica project should remedy this. Unsurprisingly though, this megaproject faces political and budgetary hurdles. It will most likely not be ready by 2030. But that doesn’t stop us. What to expect from the Baltics? Is it affected by overtourism?

After breakfast at the Swissôtel in Tallinn we took a tram to the Linnahall, a monumental relic from the late Soviet era that has loomed over the waterfront since 1980. Once known as the V. I. Lenin Palace of Culture and Sport, it was built as part of the city’s preparations for the sailing events of the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics.

Moscow, being landlocked, needed a coastal city to host the Olympic sailing competitions, and Tallinn, then the capital of the Estonian SSR, was chosen.

Alongside the main venue at Pirita Yachting Centre, a host of new facilities were built, including this colossal multi-purpose complex designed by architects Raine Karp and Riina Altmäe. It was conceived as both a cultural hub and a sports venue, with a 4,200-seat concert hall, an ice rink, and even a rooftop promenade offering sweeping views of the Old Town and the Gulf of Finland. A heliport and small seaport added to its futuristic ambitions.

In its heyday, Linnahall hosted international concerts, ice shows, and civic events. But as the decades passed, its fortunes waned.

The skating rink closed in 2009, followed by the concert hall in 2010, and the building began to fall into disrepair. Plans for renovation have surfaced repeatedly – the city council even announced a redevelopment project in 2015 – but none have yet materialised.

Despite its faded state, Linnahall has found new roles. In 2019, its cavernous interiors doubled as a Kyiv (Kiev) opera house for Christopher Nolan’s film ‘Tenet‘, a choice that perfectly suited its cinematic, time-capsule atmosphere.

Today, it remains closed to the public, but its terraces and exterior walkways are still popular with locals and visitors seeking a panoramic view of Tallinn’s waterfront.

It’s worth noting that Linnahall has nothing to do with Tallinn’s medieval Town Hall (Raekoda) in the Old Town – the two share a name only in the loosest sense. One is a Gothic landmark at the heart of the city’s history; the other is a sprawling Soviet megastructure on the edge of the sea.

For now, Linnahall stands as a concrete monument to an ambitious, if complicated, chapter of Tallinn’s past – one that still inspires debate over whether it should be preserved, repurposed, or replaced.

Past the Linnahall, there is the Lennusadam or Seaplane Harbour, part of the Estonian Maritime Museum (Eesti Meremuuseum).

Lennusadam or Seaplane Harbour

The Seaplane Harbour in Tallinn is one of Estonia’s most distinctive museums and a major attraction for visitors interested in maritime history. Opened in May 2012, it forms part of the Estonian Maritime Museum, which is dedicated to collecting, preserving, researching, and presenting Estonia’s maritime heritage. The museum’s mission is to increase public knowledge, respect, and love for the sea.

The Estonian Maritime Museum was founded in 1935 on the initiative of former captains and sailors. Its first exhibition was housed in a converted warehouse in the Tallinn harbour, displaying ship models, paintings, photographs, and a variety of maritime artefacts.

In 1981, the main exhibition moved into the historic Paks Margareeta (Fat Margaret) artillery tower, which has stood for nearly five centuries.

In 2012, the museum expanded to a second location at the Seaplane Harbour, located in the former seaplane hangars built as part of Peter the Great’s Naval Fortress.

These massive concrete domes, covering 8,000 square metres, were among the first of their kind in the world. Abandoned during the Soviet era, the hangars underwent a major restoration beginning in 2010, funded 70% by the European Regional Development Fund and 30% by the Estonian state.

Exhibition

The Seaplane Harbour exhibition is arranged across three levels – in the air, on the sea, and below the sea – combining large-scale historic vessels with interactive and educational displays. Its centrepiece is the submarine Lembit, built in 1936 by Vickers-Armstrong in the United Kingdom for the Estonian Navy, and restored to its original 1930s condition.

Other highlights include a full-scale replica of a World War I Short Type 184 seaplane, a yellow training submarine for learning basic piloting skills, the 16th-century wreck of the Maasilinn ship, and the historic icebreaker Suur Tõll.

Originally launched in 1914 for the Russian Empire, the icebreaker served under Russian, Finnish, Soviet, and Estonian flags before becoming a museum ship. The outdoor harbour area also features other museum vessels, including patrol boats, research ships, and former naval crafts.

EML Lembit

Lembit is one of two Kalev-class mine-laying submarines built for the Republic of Estonia before World War II, and is the only surviving warship of the pre-war Estonian Navy and the Baltic Countries.

Ordered in 1934 and launched in July 1936 at the Vickers-Armstrong shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness, she joined the Estonian Navy in 1937 and was considered one of its most imposing vessels. Named after the medieval Estonian leader Lembitu, the submarine’s motto was Vääri oma nime (“Be worthy of your name”).

In 1940, following the Soviet occupation of Estonia, Lembit was taken into service with the Soviet Baltic Fleet. She served throughout the Second World War, earning the nickname ‘Immortal submarine’ after surviving severe damage from depth charges in 1942.

During the conflict, she carried out seven patrols, laid mines, and sank or damaged several German vessels, including the merchant ships Finnland and Hilma Lau. In March 1945, she was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

After the war, Lembit was used as a training and experimental submarine before being preserved as a museum ship in 1979, though still under Soviet Navy guard.

Following Estonian independence, she was formally transferred to the Estonian Maritime Museum in April 1992 and received the honorary title of ‘Estonian Navy vessel No. 1‘ in 1994.

In 2011, she was hauled out of the water, restored with the aid of original British design drawings, and moved into the Seaplane Harbour hangar. Now protected indoors, visitors can explore her interior, including the torpedo room, control stations, and living quarters, experiencing first-hand one of the world’s few surviving pre–Second World War submarines.

Outdoor ships

Visitors to the outdoor exhibition can also explore several notable vessels. These include the patrol boat Grif, used by the Estonian Navy from 1994 to 2001; the research vessel Mare, which served the museum for 35 years; the patrol vessel Maru, active with the Estonian Border Guard; the patrol boat Suurop; the Norwegian-built Torm, which served both the Norwegian Navy and Estonian Border Guard; the former German Navy minesweeper Kalev; and Valvas, which had an earlier career with the U.S. Coast Guard.

Each ship is presented with detailed historical information, reflecting Estonia’s maritime security, research, and rescue operations over recent decades.

But we didn’t do the outside exhibition. Honestly we didn’t think of it. And we wanted to see more of Tallinn anyway.

Inside

Inside the hangars, the museum offers an array of attractions for all ages, including simulators, aquariums, a miniature boat pool, and large-scale maritime artefacts.

The MARU café and museum shop provide a place to pause, while children’s play areas ensure younger visitors are well catered for. The Fat Margaret tower continues to present the broader history of Estonian seafaring and fishing from its earliest days to the present, spread across four floors, with over a hundred detailed ship models on display and a rooftop terrace offering views of Tallinn’s harbour and Old Town.

Temporary exhibitions

In addition to its permanent displays, the Seaplane Harbour hosts major temporary exhibitions. From October 2024 to January 2026, ‘Famous Sea Voyages. The Broadening Horizons of Europeans‘ explored the period from the mid-eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth century, when advances in technology, cartography, and science drove European expeditions to chart the remaining unknown areas of the world.

The exhibition features explorers connected to Estonia, notably Adam Johann von Krusenstern, whose Pacific Ocean atlas was among the finest of its time.

Artefacts are on loan from institutions in France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Finland, Sweden, and Estonia, including navigational instruments, ship models, and Krusenstern’s own chronometer.

The exhibition also addresses the problematic legacies of colonialism and imperialism, alongside interactive experiences such as climbing a ship’s mast and children’s activities tracing the lives of sailors through a ‘ship rat’ trail.

Another major temporary exhibition, which ran from May 2025 to January 2026, celebrates the museum’s 90th anniversary. ‘BEGINNING. Estonian Maritime Museum 1935–1940‘ recreates the atmosphere of its earliest years, using original artefacts such as a handcrafted ship model by the museum’s first director, Madis Mei, a unique model made from marine animal bones, the flag of a sailing boat lost near Ristna in 1932, and a diving suit from 1935.

Period-inspired lighting and set design evoke the black-and-white aesthetic of the 1930s, and visitors can learn about the golden age of maritime museums in Europe, when steamships were replacing sailing vessels and there was a growing desire to document the passing era.

A visit

I loved the dramatic scenography of the Seaplane Harbour. It’s a bit dark, not unlike Train World in Schaerbeek / Schaarbeek. And working with levels? Great.

The museum offered a first glimpse at what we would learn later of the history of Estionia. I loved it.

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