Free Walking Tour Tartu: Cathedral Hill to the Market Hall

Your Tartu Walking Tour, From Raekoja Plats to the Market Stalls

1. 1

   Town Hall Square

   

   Raekoja plats, as locals call Town Hall Square, is where Tartu's old streets gather: Küüni, Rüütli and Kompanii streets all start here, the university's Ülikooli street runs behind the town hall, and along the river side Vabaduse puiestee passes the Kaarsild, the footbridge over the Emajõgi to the Ülejõe district. In the middle ages and early modern times this was the town market, which is why people also called it the Great Market.

   There is no permanent market any more, but the fairs keep coming back: a spring fair in May, the Maarjalaat in autumn and a Hanseatic fair during Tartu's Hanseatic Days, with celebrations and concerts in between. Look for the Kissing Students fountain on the square, a fitting emblem for a town that has been shaped by its students for two centuries.

   The town hall itself is the third or fourth on this spot. The medieval one was destroyed in the Swedish-Polish war in 1601. The Swedes began a new one in 1688 to plans by Paul von Essen and held the first official meeting there on 1 September 1693, only for Russian troops to wreck the town and its town hall again in 1708. A temporary wooden town hall built into the ruins burned in the great fire of 1775. The early classicist building you see now was designed by Johann Heinrich Bartholomäus Walther, a master builder who came to Tartu from Rostock, and opened with ceremony on 9 October 1786.

   Check the corner house at Raekoja plats 1 on the Ülikooli corner: finished in 1784 as a two-storey stone house, it soon gained a third floor with a dense row of dormer windows. Between 1797 and 1888 it held a pharmacy, later the Tartu Homeowners' Bank. Its neighbour at number 2 dates from 1778. From here it is 340 m, about 6 minutes, up to the observatory on Toomemägi.

   Local name

   Raekoja plats

   Hours

   Open 24/7

   Price

   Free

   Website

   visittartu.com ↗

   Location

   Town Hall Square on Google Maps ↗

2. 2

   Tartu Old Observatory

   

   The small building with the dome stands on the smaller of Toomemägi's two hilltops, the very spot where Bishop Hermann built his stone castle in the 13th century. Construction of the observatory began in 1808 and finished in 1810, though fitting out the instruments took several more years. It worked as an active observatory from 1810 until 1964 and is now a museum belonging to the University of Tartu Museum.

   The star of the instrument collection was the Fraunhofer Great Dorpat Refractor of 1824, at the time the largest refracting telescope in the world, often called the first modern achromatic refractor. The man who used it was Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve, here from 1813 and director from 1820. He studied double stars and was the first to measure the exact distance to a star, Vega. In 1839 he left to run the new Pulkovo Observatory he had helped to organise.

   Struve also started the Struve Geodetic Arc, a chain of survey points for measuring the shape of the Earth, and this building is its first point. That is why the observatory is on the UNESCO World Heritage list; the International Astronomical Union also counts it as Outstanding Astronomical Heritage. His successor Johann Heinrich von Mädler drew the first precise map of the Moon and wrote a popular astronomy book. Later Grigori Levitsky brought seismology here, and under Taavet Rootsmäe, the first Estonian director, the astrophysicist Ernst Öpik worked in these rooms.

   Going in costs a ticket and is worth it if telescopes and the history of science draw you; otherwise the dome and the story are enough from outside. The Old Anatomical Theatre is 290 m away, about 4 minutes on foot.

   Local name

   Tartu tähetorn

   Hours

   May–Sept: Tue–Sun 10:00–18:00 | Oct–April: only Sat–Sun 11:00–17:00 (closed on weekdays in winter)

   Price

   5 EUR full price, 3 EUR reduced (retirees/students/teachers), 10 EUR family ticket, children under 8 free

   Website

   muuseum.ut.ee ↗

   Location

   Tartu Old Observatory on Google Maps ↗

3. 3

   Old Anatomical Theatre

   

   The round building with the low dome was the university's school of medicine. Johann Wilhelm Krause, the university architect, built it between 1803 and 1805 on land with a military past: in the second half of the 17th century the Swedes had raised the bastion of King Charles X Gustav here, and in 1798 Tsar Paul I gave the site to the university that was about to reopen.

   Take in the shape: a classicist rotunda resting on a square, rusticated base, tied together by four projecting fronts with Tuscan pilasters and triangular gables. The tall narrow windows have balusters in their lower part, with small mezzanine windows above. Inside, the main floor held a lecture hall built as an amphitheatre, its ceiling carried by eight columns until they were removed in 1856, and its walls painted in grey grisaille by Karl August Senff. A bone chamber and a morgue, the latter converted from a vaulted garrison smithy, completed the complex.

   Krause added the two curved wings between 1825 and 1827, following the Palladian idea of a round courtyard; Carl Rathhaus lengthened them between 1856 and 1860, and a wooden extension followed in 1911. The building has been called the old anatomical theatre since a new one opened in 1888, yet teaching went on here until 1999, when the Biomeedikum was finished. Since 2014 one wing houses the university's centre for teacher education.

   Looking costs nothing, and the exterior is the real sight, since the building is in use for seminars and training. Toomemägi's park opens up right around you; the next stop is 210 m, about 3 minutes, away.

   Local name

   Vana Anatoomikum

   Price

   Free

   Website

   visittartu.com ↗

   Location

   Old Anatomical Theatre on Google Maps ↗

4. 4

   Toomemägi (Cathedral Hill)

   

   Toomemägi is a natural promontory on the right bank of the ancient Emajõgi valley, cut off by gullies on its sides, and it is where Tartu began. Today it is a park, protected together with neighbouring Kassitoome as a 19.4 hectare nature park with a remarkable range of species. Across the old moat lies Kassitoome park, with the Kassiorg valley in a former gravel and sand pit.

   Sometime between the 6th and 8th centuries the Estonians built their first fort up here, Tarbatu, which by the 11th and 12th centuries had become one of the two centres of the ancient county of Ugandi. Its position was the point: near the hill was the only place where a road could reach the banks of the Emajõgi all year round, as the river flowing from Lake Võrtsjärv to Lake Peipus was lined with swampy shores elsewhere. Around 1030 Grand Prince Yaroslav of Kiev took the fort; Kievan rule lasted until 1061, when the Sosols captured and burned it.

   In 1224 the army of the Bishop of Riga and the Sword Brethren conquered Tarbatu, one of the key moments of the crusade in Estonia. The hill really has two parts. On the smaller one, where the observatory now stands, Bishop Hermann built a stone castle and that hill became known as Castle Hill; on the larger one rose the cathedral, which gave Toomemägi, Domberg in German, its name. Its ruins still stand on the hill.

   Take your time here: it is free, open at any hour and the nicest place on the route for a pause on a bench. The University of Tartu Museum is just 160 m, about 2 minutes, further on.

   Hours

   Open 24/7

   Price

   Free

   Location

   Toomemägi (Cathedral Hill) on Google Maps ↗

5. 5

   University of Tartu Museum (Cathedral Hill)

   

   The museum lives in the old Tartu Cathedral, in the part that once held the university library. While the university was building its anatomical theatre and observatory in the early 19th century, it rebuilt the ruined choir of the cathedral as its library, and since 1981 the museum has used those former library rooms.

   The museum's roots go back almost as far as the reopened university of 1802, whose statutes provided for teaching collections. The name museum was first used for the university's art museum, founded on 18 April 1803. A dedicated museum of university history followed in 1976, starting with four rooms in the basement of the main building before moving up the hill. Since 2014 the museum has combined that history museum, the art museum and the observatory.

   Today it keeps more than 130,000 objects about the history of the university and of science. Go in if you want to understand how this small town became a centre of learning, or if you simply like old scientific instruments and the atmosphere of a library in a cathedral. Entry is charged. If time is short, walk around the ruined nave and save the ticket for the observatory.

   From the cathedral it is 290 m, about 4 minutes, down to the university's main building on Ülikooli street.

   Hours

   Tue–Sun 10:00–18:00, Thu until 20:00

   Price

   12 EUR

   Website

   muuseum.ut.ee ↗

   Location

   University of Tartu Museum (Cathedral Hill) on Google Maps ↗

6. 6

   University of Tartu Main Building

   

   The white facade with its columns at Ülikooli 18 is one of the outstanding examples of classicist architecture in Estonia, and it is the work of Johann Wilhelm Krause again, the architect of the anatomical theatre. His design was ready in 1805, the cornerstone laid that same year, and the building opened with a ceremony on 31 July 1809, though work inside went on until 1811. Wings and a university church were added later.

   It stands on the ruins of the former St Mary's church. The skeletons found during construction were reburied, and the Monument of Nations was raised over them. Inside, the rectorate sits in the south wing and the faculty of theology still works on the highest floors of the north end. The great hall, the aula, hosts the university's ceremonies and is a well-loved concert venue.

   The building's worst night came on 21 December 1965. A fire broke out around midnight from an electrical fault in a windowless darkroom of the general physics practicum on the second floor; the firefighters only began fighting it before five in the morning. It destroyed the central part, the roof and attic, the aula and two student lock-ups, 900 of the building's 6,255 square metres. The university had the building working again by 1 September 1966 and the aula restored by 28 April 1967. Until 1997 the basement held a café called Sophokles.

   Entry is free when the building is open, and the entrance hall gives you a feel for the classicist interior. From here the route leaves the old core: it is 660 m, about 9 minutes, to the Botanical Garden, passing the Estonian Sports and Olympic Museum on the way.

   Local name

   Tartu Ülikooli peahoone

   Hours

   Mon: 09:00–17:00 | Tue–Fri: 08:00–18:00 | Sat–Sun: Closed

   Price

   Free

   Website

   ut.ee ↗

   Location

   University of Tartu Main Building on Google Maps ↗

7. 7

   University of Tartu Botanical Garden

   

   Founded in 1803 at the initiative of Gottfried Albert Germann, its first director, this is the oldest continuously operating botanical garden in the Baltic states and the most species-dense garden in Estonia. The part you visit is the demonstration garden on Lai street, on the right bank of the Emajõgi; a second part lies on Oa street.

   The garden first stood on Tiigi street, where Vanemuise park later grew, and moved here in 1806. The site has a military story underneath the flowerbeds: the garden was laid out on a corner of the town wall, on the former Ulrika Eleonora bastion, probably built by the Russians in the 1720s or 1730s and drawn on the town plan of 1732. Under Carl Friedrich von Ledebour, director from 1811, the garden reached its present size, and under Moritz Willkomm, from 1868, the plants got name labels for the first time.

   Its darkest moment came in 1943, when a bombing raid destroyed the greenhouses and killed the director, Teodor Lippmaa. August Vaga took over in 1944 and began rebuilding. Today there is an outdoor area and greenhouses again, and both are included in the ticket. It is worth paying if you like plants or need a calm hour after the hill; families get the most out of the greenhouses.

   Next comes the longest leg of the tour: 1,470 m, about 20 minutes, to AHHAA Science Centre.

   Local name

   Tartu Ülikooli botaanikaaed

   Hours

   Daily. Greenhouses 10:00–17:00. Outdoor area: 15.04–15.10 07:00–21:00, 16.10–14.04 07:00–19:00

   Price

   7 EUR full price, 4 EUR reduced, 15 EUR family ticket (up to 2 adults + all children under 18)

   Website

   natmuseum.ut.ee ↗

   Location

   University of Tartu Botanical Garden on Google Maps ↗

8. 8

   AHHAA Science Centre

   

   After two centuries of university history, AHHAA brings science into the present. It is the largest science centre in the Baltic states, built to make science and technology approachable through interactive exhibits. It started on 1 September 1997 as a project of the University of Tartu, and since 2004 the city and the university have run it together as a foundation.

   Since 7 May 2011 it has filled its own building in the centre of Tartu, 11,156 square metres designed by the architects Vilen Künnapu and Ain Padrik. The highlight is the fully spherical hybrid planetarium, which can project the sky optically and digitally, separately or together. Its glass floor lets the images continue under your feet, a nice counterpoint to the refractor you saw on Toomemägi.

   AHHAA charges entry and is the most expensive stop on the route; go in with children or if you like to try things with your own hands, and plan for a couple of hours. For a history-focused walk, the outside is enough. The last stop, the market hall, is 570 m, about 8 minutes, away.

   Hours

   Mon–Thu: 10:00–19:00 | Fri–Sat: 10:00–20:00 | Sun: 10:00–19:00

   Price

   20 EUR

   Website

   ahhaa.ee ↗

   Location

   AHHAA Science Centre on Google Maps ↗

9. 9

   Tartu Market Hall

   

   The long building with the Tuscan half-columns, cornices and terrazzo plaster is Tartu's indoor market, built in a decorative neoclassical style between Uueturu street, Vabaduse puiestee, Riia street and the Emajõgi. Two architecture competitions for it failed, so the job went to the city architect Voldemar Tippel, who designed it in 1936 and 1937 with the city engineer Voldemar Onton and the engineer Nikolai Oll, taking the market hall of Liepāja as a model. It opened on 3 January 1938.

   Inside there are two halls: the meat hall, originally with 77 stalls in four sections, and the lower fish hall with 19. The whole building stands on 1,100 wooden piles and a reinforced concrete slab. Mayor Aleksander Tõnisson boasted that not even Finland had a market hall like it and that it could compete with the one in Riga. Since the old Vanemuine theatre building was torn down, visitors have occasionally taken the market hall for a theatre.

   In front of it stands the Bronze Pig, a sculpture by Mati Karmin from 2008, with a poem by Indrek Hirv at its feet. Entry is free, and this is where the walk ends: browse the stalls, then the Kaarsild and Town Hall Square are close by if you want a last look at where you began.

   Local name

   Tartu turuhoone

   Hours

   Mon–Sat 08:00–16:00, Sun 09:00–15:00

   Price

   Free

   Website

   tartuturg.ee ↗

   Location

   Tartu Market Hall on Google Maps ↗

Shorter Ways Through Tartu

You don't have to walk all nine stops in one go. These cuts follow the route order, so the GPS navigation still leads you from stop to stop.

Old town and Cathedral Hill

Stops: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

For a first visit with limited time: the square, the whole of Toomemägi and the university's main building. About 1.3 km and 19 minutes of walking. Entry is charged only at Tartu Old Observatory and the University of Tartu Museum, so you can keep it free by viewing both from outside.

Plants, science and the market

Stops: 6, 7, 8, 9

For families and anyone who prefers hands-on visits over history: from the University of Tartu Main Building through the Botanical Garden to AHHAA and the market hall. 37 minutes of walking, including the longest leg of the tour. The Botanical Garden and AHHAA charge entry.

The whole route, outside only

Stops: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

For anyone on a zero budget: every stop, every story, no tickets. 55 minutes of walking over 4.0 km; you see the observatory, the cathedral museum, the garden and AHHAA from outside and keep the money for the market.

How Long Does This Tartu Tour Take, With and Without Museums?

The pure walking time is 55 minutes over 4.0 km. The first six stops sit close together on and around Toomemägi, with legs of two to six minutes; after the University of Tartu Main Building the gaps grow: nine minutes to the Botanical Garden, twenty to AHHAA, eight to the market hall.

Staying outside everywhere, plan about two hours. The two visits that suit most walkers are Tartu Old Observatory for its telescope and the Botanical Garden for its greenhouses; with both, count on about three and a half hours. Add the University of Tartu Museum and a proper session at AHHAA and the walk fills a whole day.

The old town and Cathedral Hill cut takes about an hour outside, or around two and a half hours with the observatory and the museum. The plants and science cut needs about an hour outside and at least half a day once you go into the garden and AHHAA.

Before You Set Off in Tartu

• Start: Town Hall Square is the recommended start, but you can join the free GPS route at any stop.
• Finish: Tartu Market Hall, on the bank of the Emajõgi, a short way from where you started.
• Time of day: Start in the morning if you want to go inside, so the four ticketed stops still fit in. Opening days vary, especially at the observatory and the university's main building, so check them before you go.
• Tickets: Tartu Old Observatory, the University of Tartu Museum, the Botanical Garden and AHHAA charge entry; you pay on site. Everything else is free.

Common Questions About Walking Tartu