The 10 Best Specialty Museums in Tartu, Tartu County

Our VR attractions connect people with history and make time travel possible. It`s August 1913 and it is hot and dry. Sleepy streets are dusty, yearning for rain. In the sun shines the city symbol - the Stone Bridge and beside it , the barges swirl quietly in the streams of the river Emajõgi. Come and travel in the historic Tartu as it was 100 years ago! Starting point at the bridge Kaarsild.

TYPA is a design centre for print and paper art where we display a host of historic presses and traditional techniques from papermaking to letterpress book printing. Old machinery is complemented by contemporary architectural paper objects and folded designs. Artists from all around the world work in the studio and display their works in the on-site gallery. As a visitor, you will be given a tour around the centre, during which you will be able to experience work both as a papermaker and a printer. We will take you 2000 years back in history and work our way back into the modern digital world. The tour is included in the price of the ticket, lasts for about 1-1,5 h and is suitable for kids as well as adults. In addition to the tour, we can host various workshops. Ask your tour guide for more information. In our shop corner, you can find a selection of journals and notebooks that we manufacture by hand and we also take custom orders for diaries and albums, as well as custom prints.

Located in an old wooden building in the heart of Tartu’s Old Town, the Toy Museum transports its adult visitors back to their most joyous childhood days and offers children plenty to see and do. The permanent exhibit displays toys that children in Estonia have played with throughout the ages. The display also includes artist-made dolls, souvenir dolls from around the globe and traditional Finno-Ugric toys. The museum has play and workshop rooms, and the exhibit rooms also offer plenty to keep one busy. Alternating exhibits and children’s activities are organized at the museum. In Theatre House there is a theatre stage, Children’s Studio, and dollhouse museum. Theatre House is a unique theatre which gets its inspiration from the Toy Museum, childhood, games and memories.

Due to construction of the new Experience Center, the Estonian Sports and Olympic Museum is temporarily closed since 31st of May 2020. The new Experience Center, together with the new permanent exhibition will be reopened later in the same year. The Estonian Sports Museum, founded in 1963, is the largest sports museum in the Baltics. Exhibition rooms on three floors, historic cellar and specialized library just in the centre of Tartu are worth discovering. Guided tours available!

Ideas Rule the World - 400 Years of University History The University of Tartu Museum gives an overview of the history of science and university education from the 17th century to the present day - come and experience the rich legacy of the University and explore its tales of science, art, astronomy, medicine and student life! The Museum is situated in the centre of Tartu on Toome Hill, the historic heart of both Tartu and the University campus. The permanent exhibition of the Museum gives an overview of the history of the University of Tartu and science. Each year a new annual exhibition is opened to visitors. The Museum's White Hall is one of the most prestigious venues in Tartu and invites you to visit its display on the history of the University of Tartu. Morgenstern Hall introduces the history of student organisations and the Museum building. The Treasury is home to the truly rare gems of the University, which have rarely, if ever, been on display. The Crazy Scientist's Office invites both young and old researchers to take part in its interactive explorations, experiments and construction workshops. The towers of Tartu Cathedral and their viewing platforms are open to visitors from spring to autumn. On the ground floor of the museum you can find the Cathedral Shop that offers different products on the tales of Toome Hill as well as the historical and contemporary scientific achievements of the University of Tartu, souvenirs, jewellery, both books and films on the history of the university as well as objects inked to the deeds of famous professors and much more. The University of Tartu Museum other branches are the University of Tartu Art Museum, the Old Observatory and the Old Anatomical Theatre (the Old Anatomical Theatre is currently closed due to renovation).

The history of the Estonian Literary Museum is the history of its collections. Pastor of Parnu JH Rosenplanter started collecting manuscripts systematically in the first decades of the 19th century and its is thanks to him that the autographs of KJ Peterson, OW Masing and others have been preserved.

Oskar Luts House Museum is the last home of Oskar Luts (born 1887, died 1953), favourite writer of many generations of readers, legendary citizen of Tartu and author of the nation's best-loved novel "Spring". This house in functional style contains the writer's auste

The Estonian Aviation Museum started from a private collection and opened its doors as a museum in 2002. The exhibits you can see in the museum's yard are helicopters Mi-2, Mi-8 and Schweizer 300, training aircraft Wilga-35, Aero L-29 Delfin, Aero L-39 Albatros and TS-11 Iskra, fighter jets MiG-21, JA Viggen 37, MiG-23MLD, Mirage IIIRS, Saab J35 Draken and F-104S Starfighter, attack aircraft Su-22M4 and Saab J32E Lansen, jet bomber Su-24, passenger aircraft Tu-134A, An-2P and superlight aircraft A-20. Inside the museum, guests will find an exhibition of quality models of almost 400 aircraft that have played an important role in aviation history.

Tartu is the birthplace of beer brewing in Estonia and it has been a beer city for almost 100 years. A beer museum was opened in the territory of the A. Le Coq Brewery in 2003 and it introduces the history of industrial beer brewing. Almost 2000 items are exhibited in the malt tower built in 1898: beer bottles and corks, tankards and barrels. Guests can see the equipment used for brewing beer at home and old industrial brewing equipment. The awards and medals won by the brewery from world exhibitions are also displayed. All visits to the museum end in the museum’s pub where guests can sample the drinks of A. Le Coq. Come and learn about the beer culture of Estonia and the world!

In Estonia’s biggest museum there’s more than ever before, and indeed more than anywhere else: more space, more stories, more information and more events. All of this provides new answers to the questions: Who are Estonians? Why are they the way they are? What do they do? What do they think? How do they express themselves? What do they look like? The museum’s exhibitions are underpinned by cutting-edge science and technology, but are all about creating mood and stirring emotions. Echo of the Urals, named Best Permanent Exhibition in Estonia 2016, introduces the culture of Estonians and the other Finno-Ugric peoples of Northern Eurasia. Encounters details the daily lives of Estonians, from the Ice Age to today. Audiovisual elements bring the exhibits to life with song and movement, while electronic information placards change languages with the touch of a keycard. This medley of history, design, art, technology and entertainment creates an engaging place for children and adults alike.