📋 Tender Overview
Culture Minister Piret Hartman recognized the 13th-century settlement of Paide and 12 shipwrecks in the Baltic Sea as cultural monuments.All protected monuments are important sources of history that help to learn about our past. If the settlement of Paide from the 13th century provides an overview of the daily life of the former townspeople the shipwrecks from the 20th century are like rare time capsules - together with everything that belongs to them they allow you to study the life of a very specific period. Taking them under national protection helps to ensure the preservation of monuments and protect them from unknown damage said Culture Minister Piret Hartman . The settlement which has been in continuous use as a whole from the 13th century until today is unique in Estonia in terms of its size and historical importance - the size of the settlement is comparable to for example medieval Tallinn and Tartu. It is a settlement that arose in the 13th century at the intersection of major roads which developed together with the Paide fortress. It was also an important military stronghold until the 17th century. The cultural layer preserved in the settlement contains information about the everyday life of the medieval early modern and modern townspeople as well as wider trade relations and the military. The cultural layer contains both animal bones and fragments of objects as well as stone building foundations and furnace bases and a former moat.Protected shipwrecks unlike other archaeological monuments together with cargo and other contents usually represent a specific relatively short period of time. Wrecks carry important information about the history seafaring and war events of the coastal state and the wider Baltic Sea region. Recognizing it as a memorial is also appropriate to ensure the protection and dignified treatment of the remains of persons killed in military operations in Estonian waters. Shipwrecks are international heritage and organizing their protection and preservation is the responsibility of the coastal state. Estonia has also joined the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage which obliges to preserve cultural heritage that has been underwater for at least 100 years. Based on archival research and written sources nearly 550 ships have sunk in Estonian waters in the 20th century so far nearly 160 wrecks from the 20th century have been identified in Estonian waters. Due to the two world wars most of the underwater heritage of the 20th century is war heritage.
