27 April 2012 (BNS)

The Estonian Seaplane Harbor and a new museum will be opened on May 12 and it will be open day and night on its first weekend.

The doors of the seaplane hangars will be flung open at 10 a.m. in the morning on Saturday and will remain open until 7 p.m. on Sunday, for 33 hours without a break. So, for example, it will be possible to visit the new Seaplane Harbor Saturday midnight.

Urmas Dresen, director of the Estonian Maritime Museum, said that the museum wanted to receive as many maritime history friends as possible and had long waited for completion of the Seaplanes Harbor.

"Above all we hope that night-time opening gives the people a certain opportunity of choice and perhaps helps contract the queues that usually go along with openings," Dresen said. "Besides, how often can we get to a museum before dawn? There is a great deal of mysticism in the night and even more of it in the Seaplane Harbor Hangars," he added.

The museum has promised that in case of good weather it would be possible see aircraft in the opening weekend, but it leaves it a surprise what kind of aircraft they are.

Apart from the Seaplane Harbor hangars the public will get access also to the organised open area of the Seaplane Harbor, a territory that was still fully closed for the citizens a few years ago. During the opening weekend it will be possible to see different water craft, both naval vessels as well as historical ships, a Miniworld models exhibition, and to have a boat trip on Tallinn Bay. Anyone interested can look at the opening program events on the SeaPlane Harbor web site, www.lennusadam.eu.

The Seaplanes Harbor that took two years to build will become one of the most exciting maritime museums the three-level exposition of which tells stories from both under and above the surface of the sea.

The main accent in the Seaport Harbor exposition has nearly two hundred large exhibits starting with the legendary submarine Lembit.

The museum is located in unique seaplane harbor hangars that were built in 1916-1917; the powerful reinforced concrete domes of the hangars were the world's biggest at the time.

The museum will be open starting from May 12 daily from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. The open area of the Seaport Harbor will be open for strollers until 10. p.m.. in the evening.

The museum is part of the Estonian Maritime Museum, the main exposition of which will remain open in the Fat Margaret Cannon Tower from the beginning of May through the summer season from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Building of the Seaplanes Harbor, creating of its exposition and marketing activity were co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund in the framework of the Development of Cultural and Tourist Sites of Country-wide Importance.