Err reports on 26.03.2026:
The giant tapestry by Enn Põldroosi located in Tallinn’s Linnahall is very dusty and has loosened its seams and may become moldy in the stuffy and cool hall. Now conservators are starting to restore the work and hope to have the preliminary work completed by the summer and start working on site.
The future of Linnahall has once again come up for discussion, but besides preserving the building, there is another question: what will become of the tapestry tapestry “Life of People” created by Enn Põldroos located in the building.
Jüri-Martin Lepp, advisor on artistic heritage at the Estonian National Heritage Board, told ERR that Enn Põldroos’s tapestry tapestry is the heart of the Linnahall.
“The work is unique in both its dimensions and its material. The dimensions of the work are 48×10 meters, which makes it indisputably the largest example of textile art in Estonia. Therefore, the tapestry is also a very important historical landmark in the history of our textile art, visual arts, and interior design,” added Lepp.
Janika Turu, head of the conservation department at the Kanut Conservation and Digitization Center, said that both the conservation center and the National Heritage Board have been concerned about the tapestry since 2019. At that time, it became clear that the storage conditions there were poor and were getting worse year by year.
“We have been looking for different opportunities, people, leaders, money. First of all, to study it scientifically. Since this tapestry is the largest textile in Estonia, and the author is our outstanding artist Enn Põldroos, it deserves a more scientific study and careful approach, both from the point of view of textile conservation and from an art historical point of view,” said Turu.
A lot of preliminary work needs to be done before the restoration can begin.
“All the packaging and dismantling systems, work permit applications, agreements for further storage – there is a lot of such preliminary work, we will probably arrive at the actual site by the beginning of June,” added Turu.
According to the expert report completed in 2019, the conditions in the Linnahall are unsuitable for long-term storage of the tapestry. Fortunately, due to the thick walls, there are no sudden changes in the indoor climate in the building, but the temperature there is 10-12 degrees.
“The humidity in the room is also very high, mold can start growing at any moment, because a lot of dust has accumulated on the carpet over time, it has never been cleaned before,” described Turu.
Due to the humidity and its own weight, the tapestry has sunk down and loosened from the seams, stretching has occurred. In addition, there is some mechanical damage where the threads have broken. The conditions of the city hall also deteriorate over time, and therefore, according to the conservator, it is necessary to act quickly and bring the tapestry into better conditions.
“The biggest problem is still the risk of mold and the large amount of dust that has accumulated on it. We can consciously try different cleaning methods there, which is also an opportunity for us to take a scientific approach to conservation. We can try different disinfection methods and monitor the tapestry in the future to see how the disinfection has affected it,” said Turu.
The tapestry has not been exhibited for years now, because the mechanism used to pull the curtain to the stage is broken. However, it can be pulled forward manually, cleaned and dried before being moved. According to Turu, digitization is also an important stage, which allows the tapestry to be exhibited digitally.
Although there have been previous opinions that there is no suitable place to display such a large carpet other than the Linnahall, the head of conservation confirmed that there are still opportunities. For example, the Tallinn City Museum is ready to exhibit it in its future open storage, but there are still large halls. According to Turu, the most appropriate place for the tapestry is the Linnahall.
“We support the plan to renovate the Linnahall or possibly preserve it to some extent, then the stage curtain could also be there. It could be re-exhibited where its home is,” stated Turu.
Ministry of Culture plans to finance the renovation
Money for the renovation should come from both the Ministry of Culture and the Tallinn City Government, which included the restoration of the tapestry in its action program adopted on Tuesday.
The Ministry of Culture has been preparing the project for the scientific study of the tapestry and the related restoration since last year.
The Ministry of Culture has also led the negotiations and is ready to support the work with 57,000 euros. The support will reach the open-air museum’s conservation and digitization center as soon as the organizational issues related to the city of Tallinn have been clarified, the ministry confirmed.
“Due to the condition of the building, the woolen textile is in very poor condition, and it is time-critical to start research as soon as possible to determine the condition of the tapestry and then plan and implement the restoration work scientifically. Both Estonian and foreign experts have been involved in the project,” said Viivian Jõemets, scientific advisor to the Ministry of Culture.
According to the deputy mayor of Tallinn, Monika Haukanõmme, the city also understands the extraordinary significance of the work and they have a clear plan on how to prevent further damage to the treasure.
“The magnificent curtain of the Linnahall is a rare part of Estonian cultural heritage – it is one of the largest tapestry tapestries in the world,” said Haukanõmm.
According to him, the Tallinn City Museum has already prepared a proper storage facility and has taken into account the special conditions necessary for the tapestry’s preservation. The city’s vision is that the tapestry, after thorough restoration, will find a place in the new Tallinn Open Collections building, in order to bring the rare work, at least in part, back to the public.
“We want this heritage to be preserved for future generations in the best possible environment, and that is why Tallinn is contributing financially to both the preservation of the carpet and the popularization of its history,” Haukanõmm added.
A digital copy of the work will be created
Janika Turu said that the study of the tapestry will take a long time from the perspective of textile conservation, and a student at the Academy of Arts plans to do her master’s thesis on the subject.
“We can study all the wool fibers, how it was woven, how the yarns were dyed in their time, how the women of the ARS combine wove it, all this archival research and historical background, plus how to conserve such large objects, whether such salvage conservation is the only solution, whether, for example, wet treatments are excluded for such large objects, and so on,” Turu listed the work ahead.
He called it a unique opportunity for the Estonian textile conservation field to gain such experience on site.
The stage at the Linnahall is large and the ten-meter-high tapestry consists of 14 panels. According to Turu, these can be untangled and digitized on-site, one panel at a time, and cleaned, repaired, numbered and dried. The panels are then packaged.
“Digitization is a bit experimental at the moment, we have a plan A and a plan B. We digitize as much as possible on-site, but in order to create a digital copy, very controlled lighting conditions are needed. To do this, we digitize here in 54 takes, which are then digitally stitched together. We are making a large digital reconstruction of the digital tapestry,” said Turu.
The tapestry will then be moved to the City Museum’s storage facility, where it will be preserved and monitored, and then, according to Turu, we can think about how and where to exhibit the tapestry.
The project is funded by the Ministry of Culture and is being implemented by the Estonian Open Air Museum’s Conservation and Digitization Centre Kanut in cooperation with the Tallinn City Museum, Archaeovison OÜ and the Estonian National Museum.
Editor: Karin Koppel