Museum guide recommends Estonia’s heritage roads and hidden collections

August is a good time for a museum tour in Estonia, as the peak tourist season begins to ease, Kristi Paatsi, a board member of the Estonian Museums Association and one of the world’s most influential museum professionals, told ERR.

According to Paatsi, visitor numbers are slightly lower, café queues are shorter and accommodation prices are more affordable. Alongside Estonia’s larger museums, she recommends several small and unusual destinations that may not immediately come to mind when planning a trip.

Heritage road leads to Sõrve

The 11-kilometre Lõmala-Kaugatoma Heritage Road on Saaremaa’s Sõrve Peninsula is an open-air museum of sorts. The gravel road is operated by the Transport Administration and was created in cooperation with the Estonian Road Museum.

The road between Lõmala and Kaugatoma forms part of a coastal route linking Saaremaa’s northern and western shores with the Sõrve Peninsula. Its narrow, winding surface, concrete kilometre markers, period-style signs and other traffic signs recreate a journey through the 1950s to the 1970s.

Visitors can explore the road by bicycle or car. Paatsi recommends driving slowly to take in the road and its surroundings, including snow gates and old milk stands. The route also offers opportunities to stop, take photographs, swim in the sea and enjoy views of the coast. Visiting the heritage road is free.

A short drive from the heritage road is the Bulla Museum, located in a former municipal government building in Iide village on the Sõrve Peninsula. The building was once the home of Carl Oswald Bulla, a photographer to the Russian imperial court.

Bulla photographed the imperial court and its lavish celebrations, the daily life of the imperial family and the streets of St Petersburg. Around 1904, he married Saaremaa resident Christine Juliane Keselberg. The couple built a house with a distinctive tower in her home village of Iide, initially intending it as a summer residence. After the revolution, it became their permanent home.

Bulla brought his camera to Saaremaa and photographed the daily lives of local people. The museum displays images taken in St Petersburg alongside photographs of Saaremaa residents in formal clothing milking cows and digging in their yards.

Personal experiences in small museums

In Tallinn, visitors can find the Under and Tuglas Literary Centre among the pine trees of Nõmme. The centre is primarily a research institution, but its building is also open as a museum.

Paatsi recommends visiting on a weekday and notifying the centre in advance. The venue tells the stories of Marie Under, Artur Adson, Elo Tuglas and Friedebert Tuglas, while the Tuglas library offers a literary atmosphere.

After visiting the museum, Paatsi suggests walking through its garden, sitting outdoors and enjoying the pine-scented air of Nõmme.

Nõmme can be reached by train from central Tallinn.