The long-awaited opening of the new Estonian National Museum

The National Museum has been an important project for Estonians for 107 years, ever since its founding. Between the two World Wars, the museum sat in Raadi Manor, which was destroyed in 1944 during the bombings. Since then, the collections have been scattered all over town; finally, everything can be found under one roof.

Built on an old Soviet air base, the new building of the museum is truly a symphony of glass and concrete. From far away it looks like a ramp to the sky. The museum is three times bigger than KUMU.

There are lots of objects on display, not counting photographs, there are about 10,000 exhibits. The building is 34,000m2; of that 14,000 is open to the public, and of that 6000m2 is exhibition space. There are entrances from both sides.

In the middle, a 126m long room houses a timeline of Estonian cultural history, from the Ice Age to the present. The most important artefact is most probably the first Estonian blue-black-white flag, that is 34 years older than Estonia itself.

There are two permanent exhibitions taking place in the museum: ”Encounters” which follows the lives of Estonian people throughout time and “The Echo of the Urals”, displaying the cultural heritage of Finno-Ugric peoples. There is no shortage of digital and interactive parts to the exhibits. The texts is displayed on screens that can be changed into different languages. 

Location
Estonian National Museum (Eesti Rahva Muuseum)
Muuseumi tee 2, Tartu
www.erm.ee

Click on the address to see the location.

TEXT ARJA KORHONEN, PHOTOS ERM

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