Tallinn City Museum encompasses 9 sites around the town.
Our main site is located in the Old Town in a medieval merchants house with a history that reaches back to the 14th century. The permanent display presents Tallinn’s history from its founding to the re-establishment of Estonian independence in 1991.
The cellar houses a study collection of our porcelain and faience collection (have a glimpse here).Our collections of historic ceramics, copper and brass, and pewter are opened to the public.

• Tallinn City Museum at Vene 17
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Contact:

Tallinna Linnamuuseum
Vene 17
10123 Tallinn
Tel (+372) 6155 180
E-mail:

HISTORY AND AFFILIATE MUSEUMS

The museum was founded in 1937 as the Historic Museum of the City of Tallinn. Until then, the collections of historic items related to Tallinn was maintained by the City Archives.

The medieval building at Vene 17 was turned into museum during extensive refurbishment works in 1963–65, another major renewal took place from 1997 to 2000. The same building also stores a major part of our collections and houses the administration of the Tallinn City Museum.
Over time, a number of affiliate museums have been established in such historic buildings as the cannon tower Kiek in de Kök and the adjoining tunnels under 17–18c earthwork bastions, the Neitsitorn (Maiden Tower) tower of the city wall that now houses a café, former jail of the Town Council, now a photography museum, and the main building of the children’s park from the 1930s that serves as the Kadriorg Children’s Museum Miiamilla. In Kadriorg one can also visit the first residence of the Russian Emperor Peter the Great in Tallinn. Since 1997, we run the Children’s Museum in Kalamaja district and since 2004 we offer the possibility to study the remains of the medieval St John’s Almshouse, once located outside the city walls. In 2016, a display of decorative stones carved by Tallinn masters was opened in one of the bastion tunnels, and The People’s Museum of Tallinn became part of the City Museum.

COLLECTIONS

The collections of the City Museum now include c 150,000 items connected to the history of Tallinn.
The first statutes of the Tallinn City Museum from 1937 declare: “Tghe aim of the Historical Museum of the City of Tallinn is to acquie, collect and preserve all items of historic and artistic value and related to cultural history that directly or indirectly are related to Tallinn, their research and presentation to the wider public.”

VIRTUAL MUSEUM

In 2015 we started co-operating with Google Inc. and since October 2016 everyone has the chance to visit the virtual Tallinn City Museum on Google Arts & Culture platform. The virtual museum includes 3D tours of three of our sites – City Museum in the Old Town, Kiek in de Kök, and the house of Peter the Great. It also contains pictures and information about more than 160 items, most of which are not on public display, as well as a number of virtual exhibits.

Views of Tallinn cityscapes from our collections at Google Arts & Culture
Mobile view