Estonians remember the palace when it housed the Estonian art museum, before it shut its doors for renovations in 1992. Back then, the peeling paint, leaky roof and Soviet sculpture garden in the back lawn made a stark contrast to the building's glory days as one of many grand summer homes to Russia's imperial leaders, including Katherine the Great.
Now, after nine long years of renovations, the small baroque palace has been returned to its former splendor. It opened its doors once again on July 25 as the new home of the Estonian Foreign Art Museum and a palace with all the brilliance typical of the baroque period.
"I think this represents a whole lot more than the opening of a museum," said Margarita, a tourist from the United States. "It shows that Estonians have wealth and that the country is changing." The museum shows how the wealth that was exclusive centuries ago is now for everyone to enjoy, she said.
While many international tourists were among the crowds that came to Estonia's "Versailles" on opening day, curious locals also roamed the premises looking to find out just what 122 million kroons ($7,410,000) of state renovation money fetched for the old place.
"We are really surprised and glad to see that it is so well renovated," said 17-year-old Madis Tuur, a high school student at Tallinn French School who visited the museum in its lesser days when he was a child.
"Tallinn is such a small town and it is quite impressive for such a small place," said Tuur, who just returned from a holiday in France where he visited the famous Louvre, another palace turned art museum.
"I think it's great. It reminds us of the Hermitage on the inside and Peterhoff on the outside," said Tuur's 16-year-old friend, Rait Arro, comparing Kadriorg to similar, although much larger, imperial palaces turned museums in St. Petersburg.
Of the restoration costs, the Estonian government paid 84 million kroons ($5,100,000), while the Swedish government contributed the remaining 38 million kroons ($2,310,000). Experts from Estonia, Sweden, Russia and Poland worked on the restoration team.
The renovation saw ups and downs, explained Marika Valk, general director of the Art Museum of Estonia, which oversees the Foreign Art Museum.
"Of course we had a problem with money at first because when we started the Estonian state had just started too," she said.
The age of the building also contributed to a lengthy restoration as a great deal of technical studies had to be done to before any renovations could be made to ensure all was preserved properly.
Foreign Art Museum director, Jure Kuuskemaa, explained that before the renovations were made the building was in bad shape.
"The central heating and plumbing was from the 1920s and 1930s. The plumbing exploded in the walls and water damaged the works of art," he explained.
The roof was also in bad condition, and plaster was peeling and falling out of walls.
The restoration brought all of the essential areas up to modern standards. State-of-the-art ventilation and climate systems, which are invisible to visitors, were installed to protect the artwork. And the vigilant old ladies who used to guard the artwork were replaced with a camera security system that gives visitors who try to touch paintings a polite digital message to back off.
In the decorative area of the renovations, fresh coats of every color cover the once dull gray walls. Vibrant ceiling murals were touched up, And windows that were filled with bricks in Soviet times to create space for paintings were uncovered to reveal airy sun-filled rooms.
Along with returning the building to its imperial luxuriance, architects restored several rooms to their 1930s state. These rooms, originally added when Konstantin Pats, Estonia's first president, resided in the palace during the first independence, also have some Estonian folk elements, explained Katrin Etverk, the Estonian architect who oversaw the palace renovations.
One such room is "Pats" library, where richly colored walls of intricate wood mosaics depict scenes from Tallinn's old city. Pats' bomb shelter also still exists in the cellar, but for now visitors aren't permitted inside.
Also included in the renovation, although not complete, is a new highly manicured walking garden in typical treeless 18th century style. Once the water system that supplies the fountains is finished, the grounds behind the palace will be done.
Work on the front grounds will begin next year. Plans for the front are more elaborate plans, said the director of the project's landscaping, Kersti Lootus of the Tallinn Botanical Garden. There, botanical mazes and tunnels will replace the overgrown Linden and maple trees that now encroach upon the palace structure.
The forested area that fills front grounds will be ripped out, so that a view of Tallinn's old city and the sea, only a few hundred meters away, will be seen from the palace windows. The view of the sea, said Kuuskemaa, is very important to the restoration of the palace.
"Peter the Great bought the cottage from a burgher in Tallinn, so he could see the sea. It was very important to him," Kuuskemaa, also a historian, said of the small house where Peter I lived while the palace was being built. The view was part of the original plans and one of the reasons Peter the Great, who liked his homes to be near the sea, chose the location, Kuuskemaa said.
Kadriorg Park Director Ain Jarve explained that the nature in other areas of Kadriog park where the palace stands will be left in a natural state to accommodate the park's wildlife. Until now, birds have had a happy home in Estonia, because poor times have left no money to cultivate wild areas, including much of Kadriorg park, Jarve explained.
But wildlife will still have a place at the 80 hectare park, which will keep much of its less manicured areas, he said.
Project directors hope to have all landscaping and further renovations finished by 2018, the 300th anniversary of Kadriorg palace.
Once visitors finish awing over the eye-pleasing architecture they can see Estonia's foreign art collection, which includes a collection of German and Dutch Renaissance painting, pieces by Finnish and significant Russian painters, a large collection of historical lithographs and various French and Russian porcelain pieces. Unlike touring the Hermitage or the Louvre, visitors can see the entire Estonian Foreign Art Museum in one afternoon, with energy to spare.
"It is small, but there is enough to see," Kuuskemaa said of the intimate atmosphere which he says has "human dimensions."
"We don't love the Russian revolution, but the revolution in porcelain is nice," said Kuuskemaa about a small collection of Russian plates that commemorate the revolution with ornate sickle and hammers and glorified factory motifs.
Ironically, one of the museum's highlights is this small collection of porcelain plates commemorating the very revolution that overthrew the likes of those who once vacationed in the palace.
Unlike touring the Hermitage or the Louvre, for less than $2 visitors can see the Estonian Foreign Art Museum and baroque palace in one afternoon, with energy to spare. Starting in September, weekly classical concerts will be held in Kadriorg's great hall.
Kadriorg Palace and Estonian Foreign
Art Museum
Weizenberg 37
(tram no. 1 or 3 from city center to "Kadriorg" stop)
Open 11:00-18:00
Admission: 25 kroons
For information, call 372 606644
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