Estonian Open Air Museum

About

The Estonian Open Air Museum (Estonian: Eesti Vabaõhumuuseum) is a life-sized reconstruction of an 18th-19th century rural/fishing village, which includes church, tavern, schoolhouse, several mills, a fire station, twelve farmyards and net sheds. Furthermore, it includes a recently opened 20th century Soviet kolkhoz apartment building, and a prefabricated modern wooden house from 2019. The site spans 72 hectares (180 acres) of land and along with the farmyards, old public buildings are arranged singularly and in groups in a way that represents an overview of Estonian vernacular architecture of the past two centuries from across Estonia. The museum is located 8 km (5.0 mi) to the west of Tallinn city center at Rocca al Mare. The plans for founding the museum were first discussed in 1913, when Estonian literati, inspired by Scandinavian open-air museums, wanted to establish such a museum in Estonia. It was finally established in 1957 and opened to visitors in 1964. The museum's oldest exhibit is the Sutlepa Chapel of the Noarootsi Swedish church, which has been reported since 1670. The most modern exhibit is a prefabricated wooden house from 2019 constructed at the museum; and the most...

The Estonian National Museum, established in 1909 in Tartu, took on the creation of an open-air museum as its own task in 1913. Estonian intellectuals got the idea from visiting the open air museums in Scandinavia and Finland (in Sweden the open air museum Skansen was established in 1891, in Norway in 1897, in Denmark in 1901, in Finland Seurasaari open air museum was established in 1909). The First World War hindered the museum from taking more serious steps. As from 1921, the resources of Estonian National Museum were spent on fitting out the Raadi Castle, and increasing economic difficulties did not enable to begin with the costly undertaking – the construction of the open air museum.

In years 1925 – 1931, the Estonian Open Air Museum Association was active in Tallinn, and setting up the museum in the capital was under discussion. In 1920s and 1930s, the ethnographers of the Estonian National Museum I. Manninen, F. Linnus and G. Ränk promoted and planned the future exposition of the Open Air Museum. The Pirita park-museum should have started its work on 1 July 1941 but the war began.

In 1950, the Union of Architects with K. Tihane, A. Kasper, H. Armani, G. Jommi and others raised the issue of setting up an open air museum. More specific preparation activities started in 1956, this time in the Ministry of Culture. Additionally, to the above-mentioned names, architects F. Tomps and I. Sagur, and historians H. Moora, G. Troska, A. Viires and O. Korzjukov were also active in the organizing committees.

The museum was founded on 22 May 1957, it started its activity the same year on 1 June. In July, the museum got a plot of 66 ha near Tallinn, on the coast of Kopli Bay, in the area of Rocca al Mare summer manor, which was established in 19th century. The museum under construction was opened for the visitors in August 1964.

In 1974, the Open Air Museum was offered the I category. In 1975, it was visited by more than 100,000 people.

On April 10, 1984, the Sassi-Jaani exhibit barn-dwelling and storehouse were set on fire. There had been arsons in the Open Air Museum earlier, too, in 1963, 1967, 1968 and 1978, but the Sassi-Jaani exhibit buildings were of special value because of its age and interesting building construction, as there were no equivalent original buildings, a decision was made by the museum's scientific council and public commissions that a copy would be built.

In the 1980s the cultural and educational activities became more lively and new working methods were developed. Following the long-time experience of the Latvian Open Air Museum, the first handicraft fair of the Estonian open Air Museum took place in 1988.

In the 1990s the research work was continued with the field of topics connected with improving the exposition, the study of present exhibit buildings and the history of their former owners became a new trend.

Owing to the breakup of the Soviet Union and the political tensions, the visibility of the museum dropped considerably and new working methods were searched for - more extensive daily handicraft sale in the museum, handicraft demonstrations, temporary exhibitions in exhibit buildings, celebrating notable days of the national calendar as well as topical work with children started to be introduced.

On 1 January 2014, the state museum The Estonian Open Air Museum and state institution Conservation Center Kanut joined and formed a foundation Estonian Open Air Museum Foundation. The foundation works as a museum that introduces rural architecture and landscape as well as a center that deals with restoration, conservation and digitization.

The farm is from Kullamaa parish in the early 19th century. The buildings were brought to the museum in 1959-1960 and opened to visitors in 1964. The threshing house and storehouse burned in 1984. The restored farm was re-opened at the museum in 1993.

Köstriaseme farm is from Kirikla village in Hageri parish. The buildings were brought to the museum from 1959 to 1962, and the farmyard was opened to visitors in 1962.The average sized farm, that paid rent to Hageri church manor, had about 30 hectares of land and about 9 hectares of cropland.

Nuki smokehouse is an example of the yard of a poorer inhabitant of western Estonia on the periphery of the farm. Built from 1880 to 1890 at the former site of the Nuki cotter in Saunja village in Lääne-Nigula parish. Brought to the museum in 1970, erected from 1970 to 1971.

Big post windmill that comes from Vanasauna farm in Nätsi village, Mihkli parish, the southern part of Läänemaa County in Western Estonia. Allegedly, it was built in the second half of the 19th century on Pärdi-Madise farm in Rabavere village and was then sold to Nätsi village in Mihkli parish. The windmill was owned by different farms in the course of time, until Ants Kümmel, a cotter from Vanasauna farm, bought it after the First World War. He enlarged the windmill and started to grind flour for villages in the neighbourhood. The windmill was transferred to the museum in 1959 and opened in 1960.

This average-sized Viru County farm was purchased from the owners of Mäetaguse manor for 4,000 silver roubles in 1892. The farm had 44 ha of land, including 13 ha of fields.

The dwelling constructed during the Empire era was later modernised, and the rooms show people's life at the end of 1930s. The orchard and flower beds are also characteristic of the household culture of the first Republic of Estonia. The farm homestead features the outbuildings of Kutsari farm dating back to the end of the 19th century and the stone threshing floor of a ruined barn-dwelling, so the composite name of ‘Kutsari- Härjapea’ is also in use. The sauna is located farther away at the pond.

The building was completed by the museum's jubilee in the 50th anniversary.

Pulga farm represents a rental farm characteristic of Northern Estonia dating back to the middle of the 19th century. Farm buildings were brought from the villages of Kuusalu parish to the museum in 1961–1964, and the farmyard was opened to visitors in 1964.

The fact that soil in Northern Estonia is rich in limestone is displayed by many buildings located in the spacious yard: the threshing floor of the barn-dwelling, the smithy and summer kitchen are all made of limestone and stone hedges where large slabs of stone alternate with stonework.