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Founded: 1855Category: Palaces, manors and town halls in Estonia
Historical period: Part of the Russian Empire (Estonia)
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The Heimtali manor was established in the 16th century, but was rebuilt in a more impressive style during the time it belonged to Peter Reinhold von Sivers in the 1850s. The historic main building is now used as a school. The turreted cheese dairy (sometimes incorrectly thought to be a vodka distillery) was completed in 1858 and reminds one of a medieval stronghold. It was restored in the 1980s for holding different events. About a kilometre from the manor's centre is a family graveyard of the von Sivers family.
References:Built around AD 90 to entertain the legionaries stationed at the fort of Caerleon (Isca), the impressive amphitheatre was the Roman equivalent of today’s multiplex cinema. Wooden benches provided seating for up to 6,000 spectators, who would gather to watch bloodthirsty displays featuring gladiatorial combat and exotic wild animals.
Long after the Romans left, the amphitheatre took on a new life in Arthurian legend. Geoffrey of Monmouth, the somewhat imaginative 12th-century scholar, wrote in his History of the Kings of Britain that Arthur was crowned in Caerleon and that the ruined amphitheatre was actually the remains of King Arthur’s Round Table.
Today it is the most complete Roman amphitheatre in Britain.