Jaak Juske recommends – places with an exciting history to visit this summer
We asked well-known historian Jaak Juske which places with an exciting history he recommends you visit this summer.
Summer is the time to travel – why not acquire some practical knowledge in the process?
Whether you are in Tallinn, Tartu, Kärdla, Pärnu, Võru or anywhere else in Estonia, special places and stories can be found everywhere. Read on for new ideas and inspiration for your next adventure!
Tallinn is a place where legends and history meet
The pride of Rataskaevu Street, which runs through Old Town, is the old pulley well called Kassikaev. At the time, a mermaid was living in the depths of the well, to whom the townspeople brought dead cats as sacrifices. Sitting on the well today, one can see the building at 16 Rataskaevu Street, on the upper left façade of which is the room with the bricked up window where, according to legend, Satan held his wedding. The building at 20 Rataskaevu Street was home to the apothecary Melchior, who lived 600 years ago and became famous through a series of novels and feature films in which he solved murder mysteries. If the latter is a fictional character, then Renaissance master artist Michel Sittow, one of the most famous citizens of Tallinn in the past 500 years, who painted the crowned heads of Europe at the time, lived in the neighbouring building at 22 Rataskaevu Street.
Tartu memorial to a man who changed the history of the world
Rising on Toomemägi Hill, in Tartu, are the ruins of a cathedral, the largest sanctuary in medieval Estonia and Latvia. Near them, in an area enclosed by an iron fence, stands the monument to Karl Ernst von Baer (1792–1876), the famous naturalist and medical scientist associated with the University of Tartu, who discovered the mammalian egg in the middle of the 19th century.
Until that time, it was believed that the role of a woman was only to bear a child, but it then turned out that nature is far more complex. This scientific discovery really changed the history of the world, laying the foundation for today’s gender equality.
Each year on 30 April, Walpurgis Night, it is the custom of the young men of the Estonian Students’ Society to wash the head of the famous scientist Baer’s statue, because he didn’t think much of Estonians at the time.
Võru Roosisaare Bridge
At a length of 180-metres, the suspension bridge, which leads from the Tamula beach promenade, in Võru, to the cape called Roosisaare, is the longest in Estonia. The bridge, which opened in 1998, offers a beautiful view of the city and Lake Tamula – especially at sunset. Near the Roosisaare side of the bridge are the remains of a nearly 5,000 year old Stone Age settlement.
The view of the lake and the bridge can also be admired there through the yellow National Geographic frame.
The only medieval building in Pärnu
In the Middle Ages, Pärnu’s present day Old Town was the Neu-Pernau Ordensburg, which was also part of the Hanseatic League. However, little remained of the magnificent trading town following the wars of the 16th–18th centuries. And so it is that the only surviving medieval building in the summer town today is the Red Tower, located in the courtyard of 11 Hommiku Street, which is actually white in colour.
Today, a branch of the Pärnu City Museum is located in the old defensive tower of the city wall, and through the 360° cinema you can take an awesome journey through time, from the Stone Age to the modern era.
Kärdla crater
A meteorite explosion in the very distant past, approximately 455 million years ago, created a giant crater with a diameter of four kilometers. At that primordial time, Estonia was floating in the warm tropical sea near the equator. Part of what is today the City of Kärdla is located inside the former crater. However, the area of damage to the main rock layers created by the crater covers the entire city and extends into the sea. Thus, it can be said that Kärdla is a natural artesian well, in other words, groundwater seeks to penetrate the surface there.