Estonian Postal Museum

Info Telefon: 73 00 775
Besucher-Email: muuseum@tartu.post.ee

Wed–Sun 11–18

“The permanent exhibition of the Post Museum introduces the history of Estonian post from the year 1632 and gives a survey of the history of letters. The museum's visitor finds out how letters move and how stamps are printed; he may try writing with a bird feather and ink, stamping and envelope folding, children can also draw and make postcards.
The archive-library of the Post Museum is located on the third floor of Tartu Post Office (Vanemuise 7). “ (Estonian Museums 2007”)

 

Sports Museum of Estonia

Fax.: 73 00 763

Info Telefon: 73 00 750
Besucher-Email: info@spordimuuseum.ee
http://www.spordimuuseum.ee...

Tue–Sun 11–18 h

The "Sports Museum of Estonia is the central museum of Estonian sports, sport culture and sport history. Sports Museum of Estonia is one of the biggest sports museums of the Nordic countries and Baltic States. The aim of the museum is to collect, preserve, study and introduce materials related to the history of Estonian athletics and sport.
Today the museum acts as a diverse cultural centre, which organises exhibitions, seminars, conferences, publishes materials and organises activities for children.

Today’s Sports Museum functions as a versatile centre of culture. The interactive permanent display “Hortus Athleticus” provides opportunities for self-education and entertainment to the most different target groups – from toddlers and tourists to serious sports fans. In addition, the museum also organises seminars, conferences, art exhibitions and various children’s activities and issues publications. ” (Estonian Museums)

 

Tartu City Museum

Mariliis Timmermann

Info Telefon: 74 61 911
Besucher-Email: info@katarina.ee
http://linnamuuseum.tartu.ee/...

ATTENTION: OPEN ONLY Wed–Sun 11–18 h.

The Tartu City Museum was established in 1955 for collecting, studying and displaying the objects connected with town history as well as other sources.


The Tartu City Museum has been organizing Tartu History Days and Hansa Conferences and has been publishing its own yearbook since 1995.


The exhibition "Dorpat.Yuryev.Tartu." is one of the possible interpretations of town history. This exhibition is completed by the displays of Tartu Citizen's Home in the 1830s, the Home Museum of Oskar Luts and the KGB Cells. The ground floor hall continues the history of the town through temporary idea displays reflecting parts of its life story.

Dorpat. Yuryev. Tartu

The past is not a stone wall, which you can cover with new and new layers. The interpretation of the past changes and alters with time. This is the pain and charm of history.

In the ancient times Tarbatu settlement was the religious, administrative, commercial and military centre of the surrounding area. In the 13th century a mediaeval town developed here, which thrived in the Hanseatic League. The town was devastated in the battles of the Livonian War in the 16th century. During the Northern War, in 1708, Peter I gave an order to blow up the town and deported 800 of its citizens. Rebirth in the building activities of Tartu occurred in the last quarter of the 18th century. Tartu is the only town in Estonia whose town centre has preserved its classicist appearance up to the present days. The university founded in 1632 and re-opened in 1802 turned the 19th-century Tartu into the Athens on the River Emajõgi, and, as a centre of education and culture the town played a significant role in the development of the Estonians' national history.

After World War I, when independent statehoods formed, the peace treaties between Estonia and Russia as well as Finland and Russia were signed here. It was the Tartu peace negotiations that brought about a change in the political thinking: it was a clash of the supporters of the communist world revolution and their political opponents. In World War II half of the town was ruined. In the following years of Soviet occupation it was tried to exterminate the local mentality, converting Tartu through coercive industrialization into an industrial centre. Tartu was a closed town because one of the eight largest Soviet military airfields was situated here. In the re-established Republic of Estonia Tartu has enlivened its identity, which is based on the traditions of the Hanseatic economic as well as the later educational centre.

Estonians have called the town Tartu, Germans - Dorpat, and Russians - Yuryev. Beginning from its formation in about the mid-13th century the town was officially called Dorpat. This is a version of the earlier Tarbatu, which was known as a stronghold. In the period of Russification, in 1893, Tartu was renamed Yuryev, and since September 1917 the Estonian form of the name has been used.

The exhibition "Dorpat-Yuryev-Tartu" staged at the Tartu City Museum in 2001 is a museological interpretation of the history of Tartu. This exhibition is completed by the displays of Tartu Citizen's Home in the 1830s, the Home Museum of Oskar Luts and the KGB Cells. The ground floor hall continues the history of the town through temporary idea displays reflecting parts of its life story.

Picture: Henning Sq. in 1890

 

KGB Prison Cells

Fax.: 74 61 912

Info Telefon: 74 61 717, 74 61 914
Besucher-Email: pearu.kuusk@katarina.ee
http://linnamuuseum.tartu.ee/et/branches...

Tartu City Museum

ATTENTION: OPEN ONLY Tue–Sat 11–16 h.DbaseVCMS MUC 2007

The KGB Cells Museum is situated in the "gray house", which in the 1940s-1950s housed the South Estonian Centre of the NKVD/KGB. The basement floor with the cells for prisoners is open for visitors. Part of the cells, lock-ups and the corridor in the basement have been restored in their former shape. The remaining former cells house an exposition which gives a good survey of the history of the Estonian Resistance Movement and the crimes of the communist regime. In the display you can find plans drawn by the Soviet authorities for conducting deportation operations, leaflets distributed by the schoolchildren's underground organizations, objects from the GULAG prison camps, as well as a great number of other photos and documents illustrating Estonian near history.

In Estonia the total number of people who fell victims to different repressions from the security organs amounted to approximately 122,000 and more than 30,000 of them lost their life.
 

Estonian Museum of The Blind

Tel.: 56 908 945

Info Telefon: 74 81 656

ATTENTION: OPEN ONLY ON PRIOR REQUEST.

"The first and only museum of disabled persons in Estonia. The aim of the museum is to collect, maintain, scientifically examine and display the history of people with abnormal eyesight. For the blind the museum is the preserver of their history, for the seers' society the introducer of the problems and life of the blind. From 1987 the Museum of the Blind of Estonia organises annual museum days and bus trips. The museum has links with eight museums of the blind in the Baltic Sea region. ” (Estonian Museums)

 

War Museum of The National Defence College

Tel.: 73 14 111

Info Telefon: 73 14 161

ATTENTION: OPEN ONLY ON PRIOR REQUEST.

"The aim of the activity of the War Museum of the National Defence College is to support the military education of the Defence College as well as to study and introduce the history of military education and officers of Estonia. The museum collects, preserves and exhibits photographs depicting the development and training of Estonian officers, publications and manuscripts, uniforms, regalia and armour of the 20th century. ” (Estonian Museums)

 

Museum of Geology

Fax.: 73 75 836

Info Telefon: 73 75 839
Besucher-Email: mi@ut.ee
http://www.ut.ee/natmuseum/gm/index.html...

Tartu University

ATTENTION: OPEN ONLY Wed–Sun 10–16 h.

The "Museum of Geology of Tartu University is the only specialized geology museum in the Republic of Estonia with own educational permanent exposition and a study.
The museum collections have accumulated within two centuries, currently including over 80 000 storage items from all over the world. The material comes from various world regions and the collection is doubtlessly the best of own kind in Estonia. The exposition displays minerals and rocks, meteorites of various compound, treasures of the soil and fossils from all geological periods. One can make first-hand contact with fossils, minerals, rocks and natural resources, obtain geological knowledge and the mentality inherent to natural sciences at the study of the museum.
The Museum of Geology preserves and displays its collections, guarantees due preservation conditions preventing the destruction of materials and systematically collects, registers and determines geological material.
In addition to being a study base of the university, the museum also bears a general educational function. ” (Estonian Museums)

 

Museum of Zoology

Fax.: 73 758 30

Info Telefon: 73 758 33
Besucher-Email: zm@ut.ee
http://www.ut.ee/natmuseum/zm/...

Tartu University

ATTENTION: OPEN ONLY Wed–Sun 10–16 h.DbaseVCMS MUC 2007

"The exposition of the Museum of Zoology follows the system of the animal kingdom. Almost 5,000 exhibits from the whole world are displayed. The exhibits are provided with Latin names, most names are also in Estonian and vertebrates have also names in Russian. A separate display treats comparative construction and shape of animals. Skeletons of such big mammals as elephant, rhinoceros and whale are displayed. There are aquariums with Estonian fish and other fresh water animals in one part of the museum. ” (Estonian Museums)

 

Museum of Juhan Liiv

Info Telefon: 74 53 846
Besucher-Email: info@muusa.ee
http://www.muusa.ee...

1.6.–31.8. Wed-Sun 9–19,
1.9.–31.5. Tue-Fri 9–17, Sat 9-16 h

Visitors can get a impression "of the life of Estonians at the end of the 19th and in the beginning of the 20th century by the example of Oja farmstead. Photos, books and other objects related to the life and creative heritage of writers Juhan and Jakob Liiv and composer Eduard Tubin are exhibited in the museum. ” (Estonian Museums)

 

Kolkja Museum of Russian Old Believers

Tel.: 50 499 908

Info Telefon: 74 53 431

ATTENTION: OPEN ONLY ON PRIOR REQUEST.

"Russian Old Believers have remained true to their religious beliefs since the 10th century. Today there are 11 congregations of Old Believers in Estonia and about 15 000 Estonian inhabitants who have remained true to their religion.
At the museum, which was opened in 1988 in the premises of the Kolkja primary School, one can see a typical room of the Old Believers with its bed, table, chest of drawers, and a mirror. In this room an important place has been separated to God.
The museum also exhibits all sorts of clothes traditional to the Old Believers, also books, crucifixes for men and women, tools and photos of ancestors. ” (Estonian Museums)