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| The nursery of a wealthy citizen from the beginning of the 20th century. Photos: Sirpa Pääkkönen |
Tartu is a
very charming small town in Estonia with the Old Town where the buildings
represent classicism and are renovated very well. Besides the Old Town you can
wander in the old wood house parts of the city. In Tartu there are a lot of museums, hills and the river Ema crosses the city..
What I’d
like to recommend seeing in Tartu besides the architecture is the Toy Museum in
Tartu’s Old Town. It’s not only toys but also history what you can sense there,
because the toys reflect the many changes Estonia has experienced throughout centuries.
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| Toys from Soviet time. |
The permanent
exhibition of the Tartu Toy Museum is on display in three old houses. The
exhibition features living pictures of dolls and toys with which children have played throughout the ages: the porcelain dolls, tin soldiers, stone
blocks and old teddy bears of city kids, the wood-carved animals and tools of
country kids, rag dolls and trick toys, nostalgic paper dolls and board games.
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| A family at the doll house. |
A special display
to see is the 1950s and 1960s’ composition and celluloid dolls, rubber toys and
handmade vehicles, the 1970s and 1980s’ toys made by the Norma, Salvo and
Polümeer factories, and the 1990s and 2000s’ animation heroes and dolls that
have gained a cult status.
In addition, there
are displays of artist-made dolls, the traditional toys and souvenir dolls of
various nations of the world, copies of medieval toys and a rare collection of
Estonian film dolls and puppets.
The Tartu Toy
Museum was opened on 1994. By the end of 2003, Tartu Toy Museum moved
into an old wooden house in Lutsu Street, which was specially renovated for the
museum.
The Toy Museum’s
house is one of the oldest surviving wood buildings in Tartu.
It was built at the beginning of 1770s and presents elements from both late
baroque and classicism. The house was first used by Russian church and later as
the school of Tartu garrison. Still later the building passed on to private owners.
In 1998 the town bought the house for the Toy Museum. It was renovated in
2002-2003 to look like it did back in the 18th century.
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| The world of the 20th toys. |
The address is
Lutsu St. 8, and the museum is open Wednesday – Sunday 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.
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| The Toy Museum's house was built at the beginning of 1770s. | |
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