The ceremony marking the opening of the outdoor park area at the Sillamäe Museum featured a demonstration of the type of sword fight that may have taken place in the area at the beginning of the 16th century, when Sillamäe was first mentioned in historical documents.

However, this has not been the only battle fought here in recent months, with a considerable amount of debate having taken place over the park's creation. The initial idea had been for the park to be replica of one from the  Soviet era, containing sculptures typical of that time.

"Stalinist sculptures, with their large forms, were the tools of totalitarianism. It diminished human beings and the individual in society. From our current perspective, there is no reason to create a copy of that. So we took a leap from Lenin to pop art, which was underground at that time and created a small one instead of a large one," said Egle Rääsk, one of the creators of the new park.

The people who provided the content for the new park said that the ideas have changed over time as the history of Sillamäe opened up to them.

"We realized that Sillamäe is not just a closed city, but that Sillamäe actually has many faces. The world's largest oil shale furnace was here, but it was also the first resort area in Northern Estonia," said Rääsk.

Visitors to the park will be able to learn about the Soviet nuclear program as well as local linguistic practices.

"First of all, it's worth coming because it's really beautiful here and beauty makes people feel better. But secondly, because Sillamäe has many hidden sides and interesting nuances that you can't find elsewhere," said Sillamäe Museum guide Silver Sild.

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