Sillamae

Sillamae was built from 1946 around a plant processing uranium ore, and because it was designed and constructed as a single project in a short period it is an unusually intact example of Stalin-era town planning: a symmetrical axis of neoclassical apartment blocks with pilasters and pediments running from the culture house down a monumental stairway to the sea, with a square, a town hall in the same manner and planted boulevards. The scale is modest but the ensemble is complete in a way that few such schemes are. A small museum covers the town's history. The plant continues in other chemical production.

History

Sillamäggi was first mentioned in 1502, under the Livonian Order, and a bridge over the Sõtke River and a mill are recorded in 1700. In the 19th century it became a quiet resort village beside the busier Hungerburg: the physiologist Ivan Pavlov kept a summer house here from 1891 to 1917, and visitors included Tchaikovsky in 1868, the painter Albert Benois and the physicist Paul Ehrenfest. Between 1927 and 1929 a Swedish company built an oil shale processing plant and power station at Türsamäe Manor on the western edge of the town, reaching 500 tonnes a day in the mid-1930s. In 1946-1948 the plant was rebuilt to extract uranium oxide from local ore, mined until 1952 and later replaced by ores brought from Central Asia and Central Europe, and the planned town grew up around it; from 1970 the plant also processed loparite from the Kola Peninsula into tantalum and niobium chemicals and later rare earth oxides (Wikipedia, Sillamäe).

Highlights

• The main axis - the neoclassical blocks along the central street.
• The sea stairway - the monumental flight from the town down to the shore.
• The culture house - the columned building at the head of the axis.
• The town museum - the display on the town's history.

When to go

May to September for walking the town and the shore. The museum keeps limited hours and closes on some days. The ensemble photographs best in low morning or evening light.

Things to know

Much of the housing stock is in poor repair. The town is a working industrial place with little tourism provision. The museum is small with limited English. Beyond the central ensemble there is not much to see.

Nearby

Toila lies west; Narva is east.

Key facts