The Seaplane Harbour hangar, built at the beginning of the 20th century, houses one of the two permanent exhibitions of the Estonian Maritime Museum. It is one of the most magnificent maritime museums in Northern Europe.
The Maritime Museum is the first museum in Estonia to offer solutions that support equal opportunities for visitors with visual, hearing or mobility impairments or intellectual disabilities, both at the exhibition in Fat Margaret and at the Seaplane Harbour. Below you will find recommendations for visiting the exhibition at the Seaplane Harbour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Seaplane Harbour is located in Tallinn in the Kalamaja district at 6 Vesilennuki Street, about 1.5 kilometres from Tallinn Baltic Station. The Seaplane Harbour hangar is surrounded by a diverse leisure area with a harbour, museum ships and a playground. If you stand in front of the Seaplane Harbour hangar, the sea will be behind the hangar, on the north side of the building. Museum ships are exhibited there, which can be visited with a ticket. In addition, there is a concert venue. On the right (or east) side of the building, there is the historic Battery sea fortress, and on the left (or west) is the Noblessner harbour campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The exterior of the massive Seaplane Harbour building is in dark and grey tones. The building is 48 metres wide and the length from the fa\u00e7ade to the back is 121 metres. There is a tower in each corner of the building. The central part of the black roof is covered by three relatively flat domes. Long-split cylinder-shaped roof elements extend from them all the way to the outer wall, forming the rest of the roof. The height of the building, measured from the top of the dome, is 25 metres. At the top of the dark roof domes, there are 12-faceted lanterns accentuated by small-square windows with wooden frames. On top of each lantern on the dome, there is a plane-shaped weather vane on a rod.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The building and its fa\u00e7ades are symmetrical. The front fa\u00e7ade of the building is on the south side of the hangar. It is 48 metres wide. Most of the front fa\u00e7ade is made up of an airy glass wall divided into sections by concrete posts, and a caf\u00e9 terrace on the second floor. There are grey towers in the corners of the fa\u00e7ade. In the centre of the front fa\u00e7ade, there are two entrance doors located symmetrically relative to the centre. When arriving at the museum, do take some time to look at the building and think how such a building was erected over a hundred years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are two lifts for moving between the two floors of the museum: one is to the right of the cash desk opposite the stairs, and the other is in the exhibition area opposite the stern of the submarine Lembit. Thus, 90% of the museum is accessible by wheelchair and pram. The museum has an accessible toilet. It is located on the first floor at the left end of the cash register area.
There are 8 floor plans in the building, 6 of which are tactile. To facilitate movement, there is a tactile guidance path in the cash register area, on the cannon podium and on the first floor of the exhibition hall. Visitors can also explore a large cross-sectional model of the building. In addition, there are a number of tactile exhibits and tactile drawings on light boxes on the bridge. An audio guide of the permanent exhibition based on audio description will be completed in autumn 2024.
The cash desk and almost all audio solutions are equipped with a loop amplifier. Several video stories have sign language interpretation.
Please note that the museum\u2019s exhibition area is very dimly lit and with a lot of echo.
Guide dogs and assistance dogs are welcome at the museum.
The museum\u2019s usual opening hours are 10\u201319 from Monday to Sunday from May to September, and 10\u201318 from Tuesday to Sunday from October to April.
The phone number of the cash desk is 620 0545.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The public transport stop closest to the Seaplane Harbour is called Lennusadam and it is located on Kalaranna Street near the intersection with Vesilennuki Street. Bus number 73 stops there. The stops for buses coming from and going to the city centre are quite close together on either side of Vesilennuki Street. The distance between the bus stops is about 80 metres. It is about 150 metres from the bus stop to the museum. For navigation guidelines for the visually impaired, see the section \u201cNavigation guidelines for visitors with impaired vision\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you come by car, the car can be parked free of charge in the designated parking lot. The parking lot is located across Vesilennuki Street from the Seaplane Harbour. Another designated parking lot is on the right side of the Seaplane Harbour hangar. Parking spaces for disabled visitors are located in the parking lot on the side of the hangar. Please note that free parking must be registered on an interactive screen: one is located in the corridor between the self-service payment terminals and another is in the cloakroom area next to the storage lockers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With a wheelchair or pram, it is recommended to enter through the right-hand door on the front fa\u00e7ade. To the right of this door, there is a button with a wheelchair icon. If you press this button, both sides of the door automatically open outwards.
If you come by taxi, you get closest to the entrance if the taxi stops on the right-hand side of the building. However, if you get out of the taxi on the middle sidewalk, you can move directly to the left entrance. From there, the distance to the right-hand entrance is 5 metres. For the visually impaired, this longer path of about 40 metres may be easier to navigate. Be careful. On the roads surrounding the museum, there may be obstacles that impede car traffic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The permanent exhibition of the Seaplane Harbour is arranged as if on three levels: underwater, above the water, and air. A visitor walking on the bridge, ie the second floor, can see all the exhibits just as they would look when moving on the surface of water or on the sea shore. A tour of the exhibition also starts at the beginning of the bridge.
The first floor (on the hangar floor level) houses the cash register area and the \u201cunderwater\u201d part of the permanent exhibition. There you can explore the following thematic areas: marine archaeology, sea rescue, marine environment, mines and torpedoes, and submarines.
There is also a diverse children\u2019s area on the floor level, as well as both temporary exhibition areas: the smaller one in the front part and the larger one in the rear part of the hangar. The first floor also houses hobby rooms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the second floor, there is a caf\u00e9, as well as the pedestrian bridge where the tour of the exhibition starts. On both sides of the pedestrian bridge, there is the \u201cabove the water\u201d part of the permanent exhibition. You can explore the following thematic areas: the development history of watercraft, ethnographic watercraft, refugee and motorboats, ice sailboats, sailing sports and yachts, sea voyages, navigation signs, water aviation, the submarine Lembit and the history of the Estonian naval forces from 1918 to 1940.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Parking spaces for disabled visitors are located in the parking lot on the right side of the hangar. Do not forget to register parking on the interactive screen located in the corridor or the cloakroom area.
With a wheelchair or pram, it is recommended to enter through the right-hand door on the front fa\u00e7ade. To the right of this door, there is a button with a wheelchair icon. If you press this button, both sides of the door automatically open outwards.
There are two lifts for moving between the two floors of the museum: one is to the right of the cash desk opposite the stairs, and the other is in the exhibition area opposite the stern of the submarine Lembit. Thus, 90% of the museum is accessible by wheelchair and pram. There is no wheelchair\/pram access to the submarine Lembit on the second floor, to the naval forces theme corner, and to a couple of cannons.
If you only want to visit a temporary exhibition, ask the staff to guide you to the exhibition area from the exit door.
There is an accessible toilet at the left end of the museum\u2019s cash register area. There is also a diaper changing table in the accessible toilet. Baby strollers can be left in the cloakroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the bridge on the second floor of the permanent exhibition at the Seaplane Harbour, you can watch seven video stories in Estonian sign language. Sign language interpretation is also available on the first floor level for videos about underwater archaeology, sea rescue and the environment. Sign language interpreters are Gretel Murd and Jari P\u00e4rgma. In addition, a loop amplifier helps hard-of-hearing visitors. A loop amplifier is available at the cash desk and for all solutions with audio: all screens on the bridge, audio solutions of the cannon podium, interactive videos of underwater archaeology and audio stories of sea rescue events.
Please note that the permanent exhibition is dimly lit and with a lot of echo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For visitors with intellectual disabilities, booklets in simple language will be completed by autumn 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An audio guide based on audio description will be completed in autumn 2024. At the moment, blind and partially sighted visitors are assisted in the museum by a tactile guidance path and markings on the handrail of the bridge. There are also 6 tactile floor plans, 12 tactile maps placed on light boxes, as well as a cross-sectional model of the building and 3 ship models, a tactile plan of the Gulf of Finland, tactile epaulets and a tactile projectile. These tactile solutions are located on the second floor of the exhibition. On the first floor, there are tactile solutions in the marine archaeology area \u2013 two models of Soneburg (Maasi castle) ships and clay pipes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To make it easier to navigate the museum premises, here is a description of what lies ahead!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When you enter the museum and pass through the corridor, you will reach the cash register area. Almost the entire cash register area is in blue tones. Directly opposite the entrance, at the back of the room, you will find one of the largest aquariums in Estonia. The ceiling of the cash register area is decorated with two-dimensional fish-shaped tiles in blue tones and of various sizes. The smooth blue floor is in some places covered with greyish-brown dirt trapper mats. There are also two large concrete posts in the cash register area. Be careful, you might pass them close.
A large white boat-shaped cash desk is located in the centre of the cash register area, away from the walls and more or less between both entrances. The middle part of the cash desk is lower than the sides. From there you can get tickets and an audio guide. If you want an audio guide based on audio description, say so at the cash desk. To the right of the cash desk, there is a lift. When viewed from the entrance, it is around the corner. There is also a staircase near the lift. The lift and stairs take you to the starting point of the exhibition and the caf\u00e9. In the right corner of the room, there is an open cloakroom, and next to it there are storage lockers with code locks. There, along the outer wall, you can also find low poufs to sit on.
Another set of low poufs is on the opposite side along the wall to the left of the cash desk. To the left of the cash desk and poufs is the door you exit when you leave the exhibition. Further to the left are the toilets: first the women\u2019s, then the men\u2019s, and then the accessible toilet. At the left end of the room there is another, narrow staircase that takes you straight to the caf\u00e9. The museum shop is located by the outer wall of the building, to the left of the entrance.
For easier navigation in the cash register area, there are tactile guidance paths on the floor, as well as greyish-brown dirt trapper mats in major walkways. Walkways are a maximum of two metres wide. A dirt trapper mat starting at both entrances leads to an intersecting walkway covered with dirt trapper mats. The first intersecting dirt trapper-covered walkway leads to self-service payment terminals. Another intersecting walkway passes the front of the cash desk and leads to the lift around the corner. A metal guidance path will help you to find the tactile floor plan next to the entrance, as well as the cloakroom and the accessible toilet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n