Southern Estonia
With locally woven textiles in traditional patterns, everyday artefacts from Seto households, presentations on Seto music and folklore, and interesting…
Must-see attractions in Estonia
Western Estonia & the Islands
This working ostrich farm is a decent diversion for families, with opportunities to feed the birds, learn about their habits and buy feather dusters, eggs…
Tartu
This handsome wooden house, dating to the 1740s and nestled in one of the oldest surviving sections of the city, is furnished to show how a bourgeois…
Western Estonia & the Islands
This quaint museum has relics, photos, old fishing nets and a marvellous tapestry tracing the 1000-year history of Swedes in Estonia, up to their escape…
Tartu University Botanical Gardens
Tartu
Founded in 1803, these lush, mature gardens nurture 6500 species, including a large collection of palms and other exotics in the greenhouse. In summer it…
Western Estonia & the Islands
Tucked away within pine forest, Tuhkana is one of Saaremaa’s best sandy beaches, due in large part to its remoteness. To get here from Leisi, head west…
St Catherine’s Orthodox Church
Western Estonia & the Islands
Built in 1768, this superb baroque church is named after Russian empress Catherine the Great, while also name-checking the early Christian martyr. If it's…
St Bartholomew's Lutheran Church
Southern Estonia
This handsome 13th-century fortress-church is one of the oldest in Tartu county. Rebuilt several times over the centuries, its most interesting feature is…
Southern Estonia
Built in 1866 to accommodate Viljandi's growing Lutheran congregation, this visually arresting, Tudor-Gothic-style church has a wooden pulpit and gallery,…
Western Estonia & the Islands
Local craft and artworks adorn the walls and shelves of this meticulously restored thatched longhouse in Koguva.
Old Town
This Janus-faced pile turns a sugar-pink baroque facade towards Toompea, and a stern 14th-century Livonian visage to the sea and intervening suburbs…
Schloss Fall & Keila-Joa Castle
Western Estonia & the Islands
Flat Estonia isn't known for its waterfalls and, at 6m, this one in Meremõisa isn't all that high. It's particularly picturesque, however, partly due to…
Southern Estonia
British castle-spotters might experience déjà vu gazing on this majestic red-brick manor house, with its architectural debts to Windsor and Balmoral…
Southern Estonia
Alatskivi Castle imports the Scottish Highlands into this verdant corner of Estonia – its white turrets and stepped baronial-style roofline were inspired…
Old Town
This large paved plaza, once the staging ground for 'spontaneous' displays of Soviet enthusiasm, is now used for summer concerts, skateboarding, impromptu…
Tartu
Within the main university building, this collection comprises mainly 19th-century plaster copies of ancient Greek sculptures, plus some mummies and other…
Southern Estonia
Mentioned in the Estonian creation epic Kalevipoeg, the modest 318m-high Suur Munamägi ('Great Egg Hill') is the highest peak in the Baltics (although the…
Western Estonia & the Islands
Estonia has one of the world’s highest concentrations of documented meteor craters. At Kaali, 18km north of Kuressaare, is a 100m-wide, 22m-deep,…
St Peter & St Paul’s Catholic Cathedral
Old Town
Looking like it was beamed in from Spain, this handsome 1844 cathedral was designed by the famed architect Carlo Rossi, who left his mark on the…
Kadriorg
Echoing the style of Kadriorg Palace, this grand building was purpose-built in 1938 to serve as the official residence of the Estonian president. It's…
Western Estonia & the Islands
Located in an old limestone lodge that once formed part of the local manor, and making up one-quarter of the dispersed Hiiumaa Museum, this small…
Western Estonia & the Islands
On the western edge of Käina, the early-19th-century wood-and-thatch birthplace and childhood home of Rudolf Tobias (1873–1918), Estonia’s 'first…
Western Estonia & the Islands
Lending its name to the sleepy, surrounding settlement, this soberly symmetrical manor was built between 1755 and 1760 by Countess Ebba Margaretha…
Western Estonia & the Islands
Nineteenth-century Russian toffs, like their counterparts in Victorian England and Paris’ belle époque, liked nothing more than a good see-and-be-seen…
Estonia
This massive 7-tonne, 3.5m-high, 7.1m-long statue was completed by local artist Tauno Kangro to commemorate the town’s 700th anniversary in 2002. You…
Western Estonia & the Islands
Although this large, single-naved, dolomite church was rebuilt in its present form in 1836, its prized feature is considerably older: a medieval stone…
St Catherine’s Lutheran Church
Southern Estonia
Dedicated to the early Christian martyr Catherine but named in honour of Tsarina Catherine the Great (whose largesse paid for it), Võru's main Lutheran…
Southern Estonia
Housed in a handsome art nouveau building that dates to 1911, and has served as both a theatre and a bank, this museum focuses on the local area, with…
Old Town
Shaded by the 250-year-old linden trees of Lindamäe Park, this small mound near the top of Toompea is named after Linda, wife of Kalev, the heroic first…
Railway & Communication Museum
Western Estonia & the Islands
Haapsalu’s attractive former train station, with its wooden-lace ornamentation and grand colonnade, opened in 1907 to transport the Russian nobility to…
Western Estonia & the Islands
Just inland from Sõru sadam (port) where the ferry to Saaremaa docks, this little community museum is worth a look. Downstairs you might find art from the…
Western Estonia & the Islands
Kõpu Peninsula’s second lighthouse stands 29.5m high, in all its blazing red glory at the western tip of the peninsula, only 200km from Stockholm. In 1874…
Western Estonia & the Islands
Based in former Soviet border-guard barracks, this ramshackle museum showcases military detritus, much of which was scavenged from the surrounding area…
Tartu
On the main road heading north out of town stands the sad remains of Raadi Manor, one-time home of the von Liphartide family. It passed to the University…
Southern Estonia
An estimated 29,000 Russians died at the Nazi POW camp Stalag-351, which was located in converted stables at Priimetsa on Valga’s outskirts. Most died of…
Western Estonia & the Islands
Even in a nation where people still leave offerings in sacred groves, Orissaare's most famous landmark is, well, a little weird. Winner of the 2015…
Western Estonia & the Islands
Northern Hiiumaa had a population of free Swedish farmers until they were forced to leave on the orders of Catherine the Great, with many ending up in the…
Lahemaa National Park
The former Soviet border-guard barracks at Käsmu now shelters this eclectic museum, displaying artefacts relating to sailing, fishing, smuggling and other…
Tehumardi Night Battle Monument
Western Estonia & the Islands
On the night of 8 October 1944 a gruesome battle took place in the coastal village of Tehumardi between retreating German troops and a Soviet Estonian…
Southern Estonia
It's thought that the name Sangaste might derive from the Latin phrase Sanguis Christi (Blood of Christ), referring to a relic kept in Sangaste's original…
