The largest theme park in the Baltics opened in Pärnu, Estonia on Saturday (26 July), based around the Estonian children’s series Lotte.

Showcasing Lotte the female dog and her friends Bruno the kitten and Albert the bunny, Klaus the old dog and Jaak the fly among other characters, the 18 hectare (44.4 acre) Lottemaa theme park cost €4.4m (US$5.9m, £3.5m) and includes a 500-seat theatre which will show concerts and plays, a food court, Lotte village ‘Gadgetville’, an adventure trail and a beach.

Actors will portray Lottemaa characters who will interact with park guests during the day and on weekend evenings there will be concerts and plays for adults by different Estonian theatres.

The project – located on a former Soviet missile base – had been postponed a number of times, including in 2011, when a conflict over the name arose with the Korean-Japanese company Lotte Group, which operates an unrelated theme park in South Korea. Leiutajateküla SA is the new Estonian theme park’s operator.

Lotte appears in a series of animations, plays and books by Janno Põldma and Heiki Ernits. It tells the story of Lotte the talking puppy girl and her playmate, a cat named Bruno. The two protagonists live in a town of inventors, where Lotte’s father is the greatest inventor of all.