page_title: Haapsalu Castle
section_title: Legend of the White Lady
hierarchical_section_title: Haapsalu Castle / Legend of the White Lady
caption_attribution_description: Eesti: Haapsalu linnuse varemedEnglish: Haapsalu castle ruins This is a photo of cultural heritage monument of Estonia number 15391.
context_page_description: Haapsalu Castle is a castle with cathedral in Haapsalu, Estonia, founded in the thirteenth century as the seat of the Bishopric of Ösel-Wiek. According to legend, during full moons in August, an image of a maiden, The White Lady, appears on the inner wall of the chapel.
context_section_description: On full moon nights in August an image of a maiden, The White Lady, is said to appear on the inner wall of the chapel.
  During the reign of Ösel-Wiek Bishop, every canon was supposed to lead a chaste and virtuous life according to the rules of the monastery. Access of women to the Episcopal Castle was forbidden by threat of death. A legend tells that a canon fell in love with an Estonian girl and secretly brought the maiden into the castle. She hid by dressing as a choirboy and remained a secret for a long time, but when the bishop visited Haapsalu again, the young singer caught his attention and he ordered an investigation of the singer's gender.
  Upon finding the girl, the bishop summoned his council and it decided that the girl should be immured in the wall of the chapel and the canon was to be put in prison where he was starved to death. The builders left a cavity into the wall and the poor girl with a piece of bread and a mug of water was walled in. For some time her cries for help were heard. Yet her soul could not find the peace and, as a result, she appears on the Baptistery’s window to grieve for her beloved man already for centuries, and also to prove the immortality of love.
  The White Lady Days music festival is held at the time of the August full moon.
caption: Ruins of the castle
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D3100", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "1", "Image YResolution": "1", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "ViewNX 2.5 W", "Image DateTime": "2012:10:10 20:54:03", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "226", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "GPS GPSLatitudeRef": "N", "GPS GPSLatitude": "[58, 56, 211214115/4194304]", "GPS GPSLongitudeRef": "E", "GPS GPSLongitude": "[23, 32, 190108485/8388608]", "GPS GPSMapDatum": "WGS-84", "Image GPSInfo": "480", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "956", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3296", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2012:08:16 12:27:16", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2012:08:16 12:27:16", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "8321", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2978", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "6561592"}