Effort Mounted to Preserve Paide's Architectural Heritage
Nearly half of downtown Paide's 18th and 19th century wooden buildings still face the threat of irreversible damage, according to a museum and preservation society.
To draw attention to the problem, the Järva County museum has marked 12 buildings with signs in what has become a kind of open air exhibit.
The signs, which provide an historical preview and are furnished with photographs, were placed on the best-known of the old buildings and the ones with the richest historical record.
"For instance the building at Pärnu 12 which continues to be used by the county hospital, has wood lace over one window, very typical of Paide," said Valev Väljaots, director of the museum. "And the Posti 12 building, which is actually the youngest of all of these buildings, erected in 1909-1910, has an unusual architectural design," he said.
Rainer Eidemiller, who heads Weissenstein, an association that deals with preservation and popularization of Paide's heritage, says more than half of the old town was razed in the 1970s - Paide is characterized by a fairly functionalist central square - and that nearly half of the existing heritage buildings are in danger of destruction.
He said there was much still to be done, "to help people see that this is not just an area that is going downhill but that it has a cultural and historical value that should be dealt with."
"It could also become a place where modern-day people find it pleasant to live," he said.
Kristopher Rikken
