Walking Around Tallinn
Kadriorg A Park full of Art, History and Architecture
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Houses at 35 and 41 Poska St. Castellan’s aka Palace Governor’s Home Villas at 51 and 53 Poska St. Swan Lake Statue of Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald Palace auxiliary buildings Mikkel Museum Kadriorg Palace President’s Residence Peter the Great’s Cottage Kumu Art Museum Rose Garden
1 Café and restaurant at Kumu 2 Park Café
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Rusalka Tallinn Song Festival Grounds
3 Restaurant Kadriorg
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Kadriorg
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A. H. Tammsaare Museum J. Köleri St.
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Information Centre of the Park (Weizenbergi 33) Villas at 8 and 10 Koidula St.
4 Restaurant Cantina Carramba 5 Restaurant Lydia 6 Restaurant Villa Thai 7 Wine bar Tigu 8 Café Vesivärava kohvik
Kadriorg Kadriorg is a charming, elite, lush green seaside district with the imperial baroque palace built by Russian tsar Peter the Great as its historical pivot, and Kumu, the main building of the Estonian Art Museum as the new crowd puller. The streets of Kadriorg are as good as a unique architectural museum, weaving together various centuries and cultures. Noble villas and summer estates, some fine examples of functionalist architecture as well as Russian-style little houses, the homes of the Kadriorg Palace servantry are interspersed with more humble Estonian rented wooden houses. Above all, Kadriorg is famed for its baroque palace and park ensemble. Russian tsar Peter I began building this family summer palace in 1718. The emergence and development of the area was then influenced first and foremost by the high society of the tsar’s empire. On the other hand, the fine architecture of the historical wooden house district tells the story of a once wealthy spa and bathhouse neighbourhood by the sea. In February 2006, the Kumu Art Museum opened in Kadriorg. The long-awaited Kumu is the first ever purpose-built main building of the Estonian Art Museum. This multi-storey, multifunctional, hightech art facility has quickly established itself as one the most visited attractions in Kadriorg and the whole of Tallinn. In 2008, the largest art museum in the Baltics was awarded the European Museum of the Year. Kadriorg is one of the more dignified areas even today, and one of the best loved residential regions of Tallinn. The Estonian president’s residence and many foreign embassies are located here. The park is one of the favourite leisure spots for Tallinners young and old alike.
Walking Around Tallinn
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Kadriorg Residential Area
Kadriorg Residential Area From Koidula St. towards Faehlmanni St. – examples of the spa district architecture from the blooming 19th century When arriving at Kadriorg by tram it is worth getting off already at the stop called L. Koidula. The tram continues down Weizenbergi St., but you can start the walking route already on Koidula St. Most of the streets here are named after famous Estonians. Lydia Koidula (1843-1886) is one of the most beloved Estonian poets. “My Country is My Love”, a patriotic poem written by her became the unofficial national anthem during the soviet era, and people used to sing to it with great emotion at the song festivals. Koidula St., like the entire street network on the area is from the 19th century, when Kadriorg blossomed as a holiday resort. Thus, the houses dating back to those days are primarily former bathhouses and spas as well as summer villas of the wealthier citizens. Illustrative examples of the architecture are the villa at 10 Koidula St. 1 , and the art nouveau villa surrounded by garden at 8 Koidula St. The latter was built in 1906, when the railroad networks were already improving fast and the Russian fashionable society moved along from Tallinn to look for new holiday destinations. The walking route runs along Koidula St. heading towards the corner of J. Köleri St., which is named after Johann Köler (1826-1899), the founder of Estonian professional painting. At 12A Koidula St. 2 there is a 19th century wooden summer villa with abundant decorations and a lovely veranda. This used to be the holiday home of the tsar’s governor. To Tallinners however, it is far more familiar as the house of the most popular Estonian 20th-century novelist Anton Hansen Tammsaare (1865-1940). Today the Tammsaare Museum together with a library and an art gallery are housed in the building. In the late 19th and early 20th century Kadriorg was being built all the more densely, because by that time the local middle class started to rent apartments here, too. The route now takes a turn from Koidula to Faehlmanni St. Friedrich Robert Faehlmann (1798-1850)
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Kadriorg Residential Area
was an early folklorist, the founder of collecting and studying Estonian folklore. On the street named after him you are soon able to spot the typical two-storied wooden houses. These were ordinary people’s homes – which does not mean that they would have lacked expressive decorating. From Faehlmanni St. to J. Köleri St. – and back again to Koidula St. and on to J. Poska St. Kadriorg developed into a pleasant leisure and sports centre and a residential region in the 1930s. Several impressive, modern houses and villas in both art deco and functionalist style were built here. On a beautiful and quiet street such as J. Köleri St. 3 you will easily understand why Kadriorg is such a loved neighbourhood. From the end of Koidula St. the route continues to J. Poska St., which has got its name from a well-known Estonian statesman and Tallinn’s first Estonian mayor Jaan Poska (1866-1920). It is worth turning straight to the right to have a closer look at the small wooden Russian-style houses rich in decorations. The chefs, gardeners, carpenters, bricklayers and other servants who were making the everyday life happen at the tsarist palace used to live here, in the so called Ekaterintalskaja sloboda. Though many of the buildings do not have their original baroque appearance any more, but have been renovated during the 19th century and therefore represent classicism, their measures and location on the property still date back to the original plans of the palace residential district. A palace servant was given a property and a house on a lifetime agreement, but he was not allowed to sell it or rent it to anyone. The best examples of the sloboda architecture must be the tiny house at 35 Poska St. 4 together with the superbly decorated 41 Poska St. These romantic crooked houses are unique in Tallinn, for they are the oldest wooden houses in the city.
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Castellan’s Home
Castellan’s Home Let’s now go back a little bit along Poska St. On the right hand side, on Roheline aas St. you can soon spot an ensemble of three remarkably prouder houses. They form the palace governor’s otherwise known as the Castellan’s Home 5 . The pink one in the middle was the actual castellan’s place, while one of the two houses belonged to the castellan’s servants and the other to the palace gardener working under the castellan’s command. Today the Castellan’s Home serves as the Eduard Vilde Museum. Vilde (1865-1933) is an Estonian author, and the museum consists of a three-room-exhibition on his life and work plus five furnished rooms true to his era. On the second floor there is an art gallery (Kastellaanimaja Gallery) with Estonian art on display. At this point it is best to return via Poska St. until the corner of Narva maantee St. On this leg there are magnificent early 20th-century wooden villas in the tradition of art nouveau and historicism. Take a look at for instance 51 and 53 Poska St. 6 . When you have reached the Kadriorg Park you can still pause to admire the right side of Weizenbergi St.: the cute wooden dwelling houses as well as the probably most beautiful pre-war cottages. Then take a few steps back and enter the Kadriorg Park.
Writer Eduard Vilde as seen by caricaturist Gori. Vilde was very fond of travelling, and travel literature belonged to his favourite genres.
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Kadriorg Palace Ensemble
Kadriorg Palace Ensemble Though the Kadriorg Park up to the Kumu Art Museum – many interesting museums on the way The idea of a palace accompanied by a park is from the year 1714, when Russian tsar Peter I was staying in Tallinn supervising the construction of a new fortified port. The relatively open and uninhabited region of Kadriorg seemed like an ideal spot for a tsarist seaside paradise. The imperial palace naturally meant crowds of Russian high society and powerbrokers coming to Tallinn. The area commenced to develop quickly in the 18th century. Although the park of the palace has not been entirely preserved, it still forms the most outstanding example of park architecture in Estonia. The palace and park ensemble were planned by an Italian architect Niccolo Michetti, to whom they meant the first larger project in the Russian court. He soon became the unofficial head architect in Russia, and he also planned the famous Peterhof Palace in St. Petersburg. One of the most popular spots in the park is the rectangular Swan Lake 7 with its surroundings. The statue of Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald (1803-1882) 8 , the man who put together the Estonian national epic Kalevipoeg, stands on the east side of the Swan Lake. The original Kadriorg Park was considerably larger than today – nearly 100 hectares in size. The dense forest park on the other side of the street as seen from the Swan Lake used to be a fine French and Italian park. It must be mentioned though, that only a small piece of the area was planned as a regular park. Most of it was meant to be natural landscape – meadow and forest criss-crossed by picturesque paths. The tsar’s soldiers planted endless amounts of trees in the park: 550 trees in 1722 alone. To get rid of the unfinished appearance, a lot of full-grown trees were planted, too. Some of the trees, the horse chestnuts especially, were to be later removed to the gardens of St. Petersburg, but after Peter’s death such plans were aborted, and the horse chestnuts stayed in Kadriorg.
Walking Around Tallinn
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Kadriorg Palace Ensemble
There is a promenade (Weizenbergi St.) running from the Swan Lake to the palace. Many of the palace’s auxiliary buildings 9 are situated on it, for example the guesthouse and the park pavilion. The guards’ house stands right by the gates, and after that there are the palace kitchen and the ice cellar. The restored kitchen has become the Mikkel Museum 10 . The museum’s collection consists of a single private collector’s collection – one of the few private collections in post-war Estonia. It is the most valuable and largest collection of graphics in Estonia including for example four etchings by Rembrandt. For the most part the collection comprises of Dutch masters’ works from 16th to 19th century. In 1995, Johannes Mikkel (1907-2006) donated his entire collection of all in all over 600 pieces of Western European, Russian, Chinese and Estonian art to the Art Museum of Estonia. Peter the Great begun building the Kadriorg Palace in 1718. The name Catherinenthal (Kadriorg in Estonian, Ekaterinenthal in Russian) was given to the palace and park ensemble in honour of Peter’s wife, empress Catherine I. The Kadriorg Palace 11 was built after the Italian villas, consisting of a main building and of two annexes. According to a legend the tsar himself has laid the first bricks of the palace wall. The great hall, one of the most beautiful rooms in the whole palace, is a real crown jewel of the Northern European and tsarist Russian baroque architecture. The two-storied hall is decorated with rich stucco work and ceiling paintings. The vestibule and some other rooms in the main building as well as some of the stoves have retained their 18thcentury appearance. The Flower Garden behind the palace has been renovated after 18th-century examples and is open to the public. Although most Russian rulers did visit the summer palace until the early 20th century, Kadriorg was never meant to be a permanent residence but just an acting summer place. That explains the relatively small size compared to the grand castles of St. Petersburg. Having said that, there is still plenty of that imperial grandeur. From 1929 the palace served as the residence of the Estonian head of state.
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Kadriorg
The banqueting hall was constructed at the back of the palace, and some rooms were refurnished in Estonian national romantic style. The park had been neglected for some time, but was then trimmed and made the state’s showcase park with a concert garden, orchestra platform and several pavilions. On the same level as the palace, across the back Flower garden, lies the president’s office building, built a few years before World War II, which today serves as the Presidential Residence 12 . In people’s minds Kadriorg has for centuries had the meaning of a power centre. The Kadriorg Art Museum, branch of the Art Museum of Estonia, was opened in the renovated palace in 2000. Besides exhibitions of foreign art, concerts, theatre plays and receptions, as well as lectures, tours and introductions of art works take place in the museum. When you return from the palace and the presidential residence to Weizenbergi St., named after the first Estonian professional sculptor August Weizenberg (1837-1921), and walk on until you spot a tiny, almost unnoticeable stone house on the left at the end of an alley. This is the oldest building in the whole palace district, even older than the palace itself. This modest summer cottage was used by Peter the Great before the construction of the palace started. He used to call it “the cottage in the backwoods”. What could be more appropriate than this humble structure now serving as Peter the Great’s Cottage 13 – a museum with five rooms furnished with articles that belonged to the tsar and other period items.
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Kumu Art Museum
Getting an own, purpose-built main building was a long-awaited and time-consuming project for the Art Museum of Estonia. In February 2006, the doors of the new Kumu Art Museum 14 were finally opened to the public. Like modern art museums these days Kumu is a multi-functional art facility. The 5 000 m2 of exhibition halls cover Estonian art from the 18th century onwards, including works from the occupations period (1945-1991) as well as Estonian and foreign modern and contemporary art. There is an auditorium, educational centre, museum shop, cafĂŠ, and a restaurant here. Kumu was designed by a Finnish architect Pekka Vapaavuori, who won the international competition held in 1993-1994. From Kumu through the Rose Garden and the Kadriorg Palace, down the boulevard to the Seaside Promenade After visiting Kumu you can choose an alternative route on your way back to the palace. A little bit on the left there is the lately restored Rose Garden 15 with rose bushes and stepped flower beds. Continue through the Rose Garden and down the steps, so you will end up at the Mikkel Museum. From there you can walk towards the Kadriorg Palace. Walk on in front of the palace, and along the boulevard leading to the sea, and you will end up on the Seaside Promenade.
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Seaside Promenade
Seaside Promenade At the end the boulevard across the street stands one of the most famous sculptures in Tallinn – Rusalka (1902) 16 , a monument to the armoured ship which was to be removed from Tallinn to Helsinki in 1893. Due to a heavy storm the ship never made it to Helsinki and took all 177 crewmen to the bottom of the sea. The sculpture by Amandus Adamson is one of the classics of Estonian art. The scraggly rocks around the granite statue symbolise the waves of the sea, and the angel figure with one arm raised points to the direction where the ship sank. Adamson (1855-1929) is one of the most famous Estonian sculptors. Like many of the 19th-century founders of Estonian professional art, Adamson also started as a free artist in Europe and ended up as an academic in the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. He was born into a seafar16 ing family and sea motifs played a crucial part in his works. One of his better-known works – a monument to an average as well – stands by the Black Sea in Sevastopol. Adamson himself got his memorial monument in the Kadriorg Park in 1962.
The author of the sculpture, a sailor’s son Amandus Adamson was one the first Estonian-born sculptors. The artist’s housekeeper acted as the model for the angel. A descendant of hers is an Estonian politician.
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Song Festival Grounds
Song Festival Grounds From Rusalka along the coast to the Song Festival Grounds There is a magnificent view over the Tallinn Bay and the Old Town from Pirita tee St. by the seaside. There used to be the famous Kadriorg beach here – one of the first public beaches where the members of the tsarist family did enjoy the fun in the sun, too. There is no official public beach in Kadriorg any more, but the area is a popular place for being outdoors. Right across Pirita tee St. you can visit one of the major symbols of Estonia and Estonians – the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds 17 . The Estonian song festivals tradition dates unbroken back to year 1869. Two important events in the Estonian history are associated with song festivals and all Estonians are familiar with them. In 1869, a fairly unknown peasant nation sang itself as a member of the European nationalities, and a hundred years later Estonians sang their way into freedom. The year 1988 saw massive anti-soviet demonstrations and huge night sing-alongs on the Song Festival Grounds. Nearly every third Estonian took part of the so-called Singing Revolution. The Song Festival Grounds is designed by architect Alar Kotli (1960) and considered one of the most distinctive modern buildings of the soviet era. The Vilnius Song Festival Grounds in Lithuania has been built according to the very same plan. Because the Song Festival Grounds is located by the seaside, you can also enjoy a scenic marinescape from the top seats. The statue of Gustav Ernesaks, the father figure of many song festivals, scans the festival grounds from up the hill. The festivals take place every fifth year gathering together thousands of singers. The biggest choir so far had more than 25 000 members in it. In addition to the song festivals all kinds of bigger concerts and happenings are organised here. The 54-metre Song Festival Grounds’ Flame Tower stands next to the amphitheatre. From the top you can see the whole city but also the flame urn where the fire burns during the song festivals.
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The route ends here. You can hop on a bus on Pirita tee St. and get back to the city centre. Or you can walk or take a bus and continue a couple kilometres further to the Pirita district, where the yacht marina, the ruins of St. Brigitta’s Convent and the ancient Pirita River valley are waiting for you.
Museums & Sights
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Museums & Sights The Kumu Art Museum Weizenbergi 34/ Valge 1 • Ph. +372 602 6000 www.ekm.ee Opened in February 2006 the new main building of the Art Museum of Estonia (architect Pekka Vapaavuori) is a must for a culture buff. The huge art centre offers for example a wide selection of Estonian art along with international contemporary art. Awarded European Museum of the Year 2008.
The Kadriorg Art Museum Weizenbergi 37 • Ph. +372 606 6400 www.ekm.ee/kadriorg Russian tsar Peter the Great built the Kadriorg Palace as a gift to his wife Catherine I. Most Russian rulers have visited the imperial summer residence. Nowadays the palace houses the foreign art collections of the Art Museum of Estonia.
Mikkel Museum Weizenbergi 28 • Ph. +372 601 5844 www.ekm.ee/kadriorg Former palace kitchen building has become the home of the Mikkel Museum. The museum’s works now make up one of Tallinn’s most impressive displays of foreign art. Items here include eikons, alluring antique Chinese porcelain, Flemish and Dutch paintings and Italian engravings.
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Peter the Great’s Cottage Mäekalda 2 • Ph. +372 601 3136 www.linnamuuseum.ee Tsar Peter the Great’s summer cottage, which he purchased in 1714 before the palace was built. The living room, bedroom and kitchen are furnished with items from that era. Some of the tsar’s own personal belongings are also on display here.
A. H. Tammsaare Museum Koidula 12A • Ph. +372 601 3232 www.linnamuuseum.ee Anton Hansen Tammsaare (1878-1940) is generally considered to be the greatest Estonian writer of the 20th century. His most famous work is the five-part epic, Truth and Justice. The museum on the second floor chronicles his life and work, but just as interesting is the apartment, restored to its 1930s original, where the writer lived the last eight years of his life. On the first floor there are a library and an art gallery.
Eduard Vilde Museum. The Castellan’s Home Roheline aas 3 • Ph. +372 601 3181 www.linnamuuseum.ee One of Estonia’s principle writers, Eduard Vilde (1865-1933), spent his last years living on the ground floor of this grandiose house in the Kadriorg Park. Three rooms are dedicated to displays on the writer’s work, and five are kept furnished and decorated just as they would have been while the writer lived here 1927-1933. The upper floor houses an art gallery with frequently changing exhibitions.
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Song Festival Grounds’ Flame Tower Narva maantee 95 • Ph. +372 611 2102 www.lauluvaljak.ee There is a magnificent view over the city from the top of the 54-metre tower. Up there you can also see the flame urn where the fire burns during the song festivals.
Rose Garden Kadriorg Park The current Rose Garden started as a once so fashionable rock garden in 1934. After WWII, the area was neglected, but now it is literally in full bloom again. There are nearly 5 500 rose bushes and over a thousand conifers in the restored garden. The Rose Garden also has its own concert area, where milieu-appropriate summer concerts take place.
Art galleries Deco Gallery Koidula 12A • Ph. +372 5567 2593 • Figurative art for sale.
Kastellaanimaja Gallery Roheline aas 3 • Ph. +372 601 3181 • Estonian figurative art.
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Restaurants and cafés There are plenty of different good quality restaurants in Kadriorg, something to please everyone. There are also fine cafés, where you can rest your feet, relax and enjoy a nice cup of coffee accompanied by a delicious pastry. 1
Weizenberi 34/ Valge 1 • Ph. +372 602 6162 2
Park Café Weizenbergi 22 • Ph. +372 601 3040
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Restaurant Kadriorg Weizenbergi 18 • Ph. +372 601 3636 www.restorankadriorg.ee
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Restaurant Cantina Carramba Weizenbergi 20a • Ph. +372 601 3431 www.carramba.ee
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Restaurant Lydia Koidula 13 • Ph. +372 626 8990 www.lydia.ee
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Restaurant Villa Thai J. Vilmsi 6 • Ph. +372 641 9347 www.villathai.ee
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Wine bar Tigu Vilmsi 45 • Ph. +372 56 66 8493 www.tigukohvik.ee
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The café and restaurant at the Kumu Art Museum
Café Vesivärava kohvik Vesivärava 42 • Ph. + 372 601 3490 www.vesivarava.ee
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Tallinn Tourist Information Centre Kullassepa 4 / Niguliste 2, 10146 Tallinn, Estonia Tallinn Tourist Information Centre in Viru Keskus Viru väljak 4, 10111 Tallinn, Estonia Phone: +372 645 7777 • Fax: +372 645 7778 turismiinfo@tallinnlv.ee www.tourism.tallinn.ee Published by Tallinn City Tourist Office & Convention Bureau Vabaduse väljak 7, 15199 Tallinn, Estonia • Ph. +372 645 7777, Fax +372 645 7778 tourism.marketing@tallinnlv.ee • www.tourism.tallinn.ee Design by Bummi • Photos by Ain Avik, Kaido Haagen, Peeter Langovits, Hop on Tours, Mari Kadanik, Vallo Kruuser, Andreas Meichsner, Kristjan Mändmaa, Annika Palvari, Arbo Tammiksaar, Kaido Teesalu, Toomas Volmer Printed by AS Folger Art • © 2008
The information in this publication is from March 2008. Although every care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the information, the Tallinn City Tourist Office & Convention Bureau can not however accept any responsibility for errors or omissions, or for subsequent changes.