Taagepera Castle

The Taagepera Castle (German name: Wagenküll) is a mansion in Taagepera village, Helme Parish, Valga County, Estonia.

The mansion was first mentioned in the 16th century.

During the Polish rule and Swedish rule of Estonia, the mansion belonged to the Rehbinder family. In 1674, the mansion was sold to the Swedish major Otto von Stackelberg.

In 1819, the almost bankrupt mansion was sold to Bernhard Heinrich von Stryk (1746-1829), who married Anna Elisabeth von Oetting (1763-1825) in 1782. The last owner of the mansion was Bernhard Heinrich von Stryk's great-grandson Hugo von Stryk, who lost the mansion in the 1919 land reform.

The current mansion house was designed by the Estonian architect Otto Wildau in the early 20th century. The western corner of the house includes a 40-metre tall tower. Because of the large size of the mansion house, it is commonly called a castle instead of a mansion house.

After the Estonian War of Independence in 1919, the mansion house was converted into a sanatorium. In the late 1930s, a new sanatorium house was built, designed by the architect Alar Kotli. The mansion house served as a sanatorium until 2000. From 2002, the mansion house serves as a hotel.

In the late 19th century, a family graveyard was constructed near the mansion house. Among those buried there are:

In 1933, the Eesti Post designed a series of four stamps with an anti-tuberculosis thema, of which the blue/red 10 cent stamp and the dark blue/red 20-cent stamp depict the Taagepera mansion house (at that time a sanatorium). A new stamp depicting the Taagepera mansion house was designed in 2006.

Exterior view.

Lobby.

Lobby.

Lobby.

Stairway to the second floor.

...
Wikipedia