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Sangaste Castle

Sangaste loss

Built in the 19th century as a project by Otto Pius Hippus, who also constructed the Alexander Church in Narva, for his financier and originator Friedrich Goerg Magnus Berg. Erected at the site of a former manor house of FGM's uncle, who adopted FGM from his brother and placed him as the heir for the manor. FGM was inspired when seeing Windsor and Baltimore Castle in England, even though his uncle and then father did not allow to spend new money on the manor. However, after the elder's death, he decided to go forward with the project. The construction consumed 7 years and 1.45 million bricks, which were produced on site. The necessary granite was brought from Finland. The rooms of the castle were intended to be spacious and every window supposed to differ, as from his experience with the castles in England. Also, the entrance hall features interesting acoustics; speaking or even whispering in one corner, you can hear it in the other corner. FGM went on being a botanist, from his studies at the Sorbonne, and in England and Scotland, producing and breeding plants and animals, including the famous Sangaste rye. The rye was valued high, also in the Russian empire. He had known and been friends with members of the Russian Tsar family, Otto von Bismark and Napoleon III. Born in 1845, he died in 1938, after which the castle was abandoned. It has been restored.

Hours: Closed · opens 10 am tomorrow
Weekly hours
Mon 10 am–6 pm
Tue 10 am–6 pm
Wed 10 am–6 pm
Thu 10 am–6 pm
Fri 10 am–6 pm
Sat 10 am–6 pm
Sun 10 am–6 pm
Price: €5 (incl. the tower)

Mon	10 am–6 pm
Tue	10 am–6 pm
Wed	10 am–6 pm
Thu	10 am–6 pm
Fri	10 am–6 pm
Sat	10 am–6 pm
Sun	10 am–6 pm

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Listing from Wikivoyage: Valga, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Updated 28 Sept 2026. Something wrong? Tell us.

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Paju Manor
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German cemetery and memorial
From 1941 to 1944 there was a German concentration camp (Stalag 351) on the northern outskirts, which, after the liberation of Estonia, became a camp for German war prisoners. In the late 1940s the Soviet NKVD began using it for punishment purposes. A sad place, located, as it often happens in the Baltic states, in the middle of the purest pine forest. There is a laconic Soviet memorial with the figure of a weeping woman and the inscription "People, be vigilant!" (in Estonian and Russian). And 100 m further, a beautiful German cemetery.
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Kukemarket
Small supermarket on the way to the memorial.
daily 09:00-21:00