Visiting an outdoor ‘living history’ museum can be a great way to get a feel for times before ours, and for travelers, another way to understand places far from ours.
Some, like Sturbridge Village in the U.S. and Skansen in Sweden, can often seem a bit overcrowded and hectic, so it was a nice change of pace for me to visit Estonia’s Open Air Museum, a half-hour bus ride from central Tallinn, and have a leisurely afternoon in open space with only sparse crowds.
Through the 19th century, most rural buildings were local wood, with notched log construction; near the end of the century, that began to change, with weatherboards or shingles covering walls. Most farms included a combination dwelling and barn, with smaller outbuildings.
The museum’s grounds are quite large, as you can see from the distances on the guidepost above; the exhibits are spread out over about 200 acres of land at Rocca al Mare that were once occupied by rich families’ summer villas. I spent about five hours wandering the streets of the ‘village’ and visiting buildings and demonstrations. It would have taken at least another day or so to see it all!
Outbuildings served as storage and for special purposes; the conical summer kitchen would also serve as a brewhouse and laundry. It’s a heritage from the ancient tribes that lived in the area many centuries ago
The museum’s buildings were collected from all over the country’s regions, and exhibit differences in what was grown and how, as well as changing styles and technology in buildings. Most of the buildings are from the 18th and 19th centuries, but the chapel dates back well into the 1600s.
The kiln room was the center of most farm houses, and the only heated one. It served as living room, grain-drying space, sleeping space, and in serious cold, a refuge for the farm’s animals. When more modern stoves developed, other rooms could be added around the kiln room.
A few buildings are much newer than that. A store from about 1912 is on hand because rural villages didn’t usually have stores until manufactured goods became more widely available. A 1964 small apartment building represents life on collective farms of the Soviet era. And, a small pre-fab house from 2019 highlights the fact that Estonia has become Europe’s biggest exporter of factory-built houses.
In the midst of my wanderings, a stop at the museum cafe for some soup
The idea for an Estonian Open Air Museum came from the success of Skansen and other Scandinavian models that opened in the 1880s and 90s; the first plans to develop one in Estonia came in 1913, but the World War I put a halt to the idea. After the war discussion picked up again, and plans were being made to open in Pirita Park in Tallinn—but the planned opening date was also the date of the German invasion of Latvia in 1941.
Smaller outbuildings served as storage for clothing, workspaces and as summer sleeping spaces
The idea was revived after the war, with planning taken over by the Ministry of Culture and the site at Rocca al Mare started work in 1957, opening in 1964, with a significant number of buildings moved from around the country. More have been added since, and several are waiting to be installed.
There’s a variety of activities available for children and chickens…
A familiar logo adorns the village store, which has a variety of goods on sale and on display, mostly reflecting what would have been available around 1938.
A windmill that once produced flour for its farming neighbors is on hand, as well as a rural fire station of a type usually built by local volunteer fire companies. Rural schoolhouses provided not only classes for students but often housing for the teacher.
The oldest building in the Open Air Museum is Sutlepa Chapel of the Noarootsi Swedish church. It is mentioned in records from as early as 1670, although 1699 is carved above the door.
Not your usual rural dwelling at all, the Swiss Villa houses the Museum’s administration. Baron Girard de Soucanton, who owned and developed the Rocca al Mare area, built it in 1870 as a wedding present for his son.
A ways down the road, I passed an old bus that had been used as transport around different parts of a large collective farm in southern Estonia. It was my waymarker on my way to the 1964 apartment building put up for the farm’s dairy workers—one of hundreds built to standardized plans. The Museum’s example was built according to Plan 61.
The building has four three-room apartments; each is furnished to represent a different era of the building’s use, the 1960s, 1970s, 1990s and 2010s. As the pictures below show, styles and equipment changed sharply over that time; the 2010s apartment could have been furnished from IKEA last week.
Quite a contrast!
Stepping back again a bit…
And here we have the original ceramic woodstove and wall heater…
My last stop, as time was running out, was at a house where wool processing was demonstrated by a costumed interpreter. The source of the wool was on hand as well.
I won’t attempt to retell all the details and differences I learned about from different eras and areas; they are there and well-explained in four languages. What was most interesting to me was the bigger picture of how different rural life was from the cities of the time, and how changing times and growing industrialization began to change life in rural areas. It’s well worth a visit!
