Sangaste Castle

Sangaste Castle (Sangaste loss) is a castle in Sangaste, Otepää Parish, Valga County. The castle was built in 1879 to 1881 and designed by architect Otto Pius Hippius. It is built in a neo-Gothic style with influences from Tudor architecture, and considered one of the most impressive examples of Gothic Revival architecture in the Baltic States.

The castle is open to the public. In September 2023 the Castle was put to auction for 2.6 millions.

History
When F. G. M. von Berg took charge of Sangaste Manor after his father died in 1866, the family lived in an old mansion about a hundred meters northwest of the castle. Young Berg wanted a new house inspired by English castles, so he asked architect Otto Pius Hippius to draw up plans. It took seven years, from 1874 to 1881, to build the new castle with 99 rooms (to follow a rule about not having more than 100 rooms). Later, as a Soviet Pioneer Camp, it had 149 rooms, including storage spaces.

The main entrance has a tall tower (without a drawbridge or trench) over a big entrance hall. The hall has good acoustics – you can hear whispers from one corner in the other. The castle looks interesting with different-shaped towers, steps, and parts of the building that stick out or go in. A special part of the castle, a glass-roof winter garden, is not there anymore.

On the first floor, there are main rooms – a big Gothic ballroom, a Spanish Room, and an English-style hunting room. The Count's bedroom is also on this floor. The second floor included bedrooms for the family of his son Ermes, the son, a library, and a room for playing billiards. The third floor has rooms for the people who worked in the house. In another part of the building, there are guest bedrooms and access to the watchtower.