Estonia | Estonia’s new museum card is worth it in just four museum visits: Here are five museums worth visiting with the card

In Estonia has been using a similar museum card as in Finland for a year. From Tallinn Krista Roolaid visited 123 museums, but the card can become profitable with just four museum visits during the year.

The entrance fee to the Maritime Museum, which will reopen in May, at Lentosatama on Tallinn’s north shore is 20 euros. Admission to the Tallinn television tower, the highest external platform in Northern Europe, costs 19 euros, the art museum Kumu costs 14 euros. The ticket to the Estonian National Museum in Tartu, built on a former Soviet fighter airstrip, is 15 euros.

In the four popular museums, the admission tickets alone will easily cost around 70 euros. The Estonian museum card costs 60 euros. The system works on the same principle as in Finland. You can visit museums as much as you want during the year.

(However, if you only go on a day cruise in Tallinn once a year, you can get the same benefit at a cheaper price With Tallinn Card.)

What the more museums Krista Roolaid visited, the more excited she became.

At first, Roolaid was supposed to visit the most interesting museums. He traveled by train to Viljandi to the Kondanen art center. The trip was so successful that next he took a bus to Pärnu, then to Tartu.

When Roolaid was looking for the KGB museum in Tartu, the phone rang. The Estonian museum card company had noticed that someone was using the card an extraordinary amount. There was a fear of abuse.

Roolaid had been struck by a competitive spirit. He visited 16 museums in Tartu.

From Tartu, Roolaid continued by bus to small villages, such as Kääpaa’s playful Kalevipoja museum, where you can get to know the characters of the Estonian national epic. For trips to the Ruhnu museum on Estonia’s Farthest Island and closer to Kihnu Island, Roolaid asked for the help of a travel agency. A car had to be borrowed for museums in remote villages in southern Estonia.

The roles has promised to present five of his favorites, but the choice is difficult.

In the small notepad, museums are listed by subcategory. There are 15 literary and 6 musical museums. For men who don’t want to go to a museum, he recommends the A. Le Coq beer museum in Tartu.

Roolaid felt anxious in the KGB prison cellar museums in Tartu and Tallinn, but hopes that visitors will visit them.

“Maybe they help us understand why we are sometimes suspicious,” he says.

The following five museums are Roolaid’s favorite destinations.

1. Museum of the University of Tartu

Tartu the university museum is on the ruins of the medieval cathedral in Toomemäki Park. The museum is the oldest in Estonia, and there is also the oldest elevator in Estonia, from 1928. The wide spiral staircase and the white concert and banquet hall on the ground floor dazzle.

The exhibitions tell about education, medicine and student life, among other things.

“With the help of education, we have gained freedom,” says Roomägi.

Tartu University Museum. Lossi 25, Tartu. Open in summer, Tue–Sun, 10 a.m.–6 p.m. 10 e.

2. Tartu Toy Museum

“Wonderful a place that reminds me of childhood. Me and my children have played with the same toys.”

It’s also fun to guess which toy represents which European country: the kick sled ie Finnish sledge Finland, Katto Kassinen and Peppi Sweden, Rubik’s cube Hungary, Pinocchio Italy, but Roolaid would not have guessed that the picture domino is from Lithuania.

Tartu Toy Museum and Theater Kodu. Lutsu 8, Tartu. Open: Wed–Sun 11 am–6 pm. 9 e.

3. A. H. Tammsaari home museum and literature street

“In a house it’s simply good to be,” says Roolaid.

Anton Hansen Tammsaare (1878–1940) is Väinö Castle a comparable classic and also Roolaid’s favorite author.

Among other things, the classic series, Truth and Justice 1–5, has been translated into Finnish. The last time Roolaid read Tammsaari’s letters to her daughter.

The house is located on Koidula street, which is a literary street.

At the end of Koidula street is a writer’s house built at the end of the Soviet era. There is Mati Untin (1944 – 2005) housing museum. In the adjacent Kadriorg park, in the former castle lord’s house, there is Eduard Vilden (1865 – 1933) home museum.

AH Tammsaari home museum. Koidula 12a, Tallinn. Tue–Sat 11–17 (Wed 18). 5 e.

4. Estonian Open Air Museum

Here Between traditional country houses by the sea, Krista Roolaid already played as a child. Now he goes to Kolu kievari to eat mulgi porridge.

Porridge is named after the southern Estonian region of Mulgimaa. You can hardly get it in the restaurants in the center. It is made from barley groats and potato, usually seasoned with pork and onion.

A couple of years ago, an apartment building was opened in the area, the apartments of which tell about the life of the collective farm workers from the 1960s to the 2010s.

Roolaid enjoys spending time outside between the houses. There are sheep and horses in the area.

Open Air Museum of Estonia. Vabaohmuuseum tee 12, Tallinn. Open in summer time every day from 10 am to 8 pm. 16 e.

5. Kondanen center in Viljandi

Outsider-the art center is named after the Viljandian Paul Kondanen (1900–1985) according to Kondase was a teacher who came from outside art education and circles. He rose to international fame for his naive works he painted as a retiree.

After visiting the museum, Roolaid bought a brush and painted berries during his vacation in Bulgaria. In the city of Viljandi, some of the concrete pigs are actually strawberries. The inspiration is Kondanen’s painting Strawberry eaters.

Kondanen center. Pikk 8, Viljandi. Open during the summer, Mon–Sun from 11 am to 6 pm. 5 e.

Correction 8.5. at 9:15 a.m.: You can’t even take photos with a museum card, as you could conclude from the article earlier.