The 19th-century Tartu Citizen’s Home Museum invites you to visit an 1830s-themed middle-class townhouse. See the house and experience everyday bourgeois life in its historically accurately furnished rooms. What functions did the rooms serve two centuries ago? What did a drawing room of the time look like? What type of kitchenware was used for cooking?

The drawing room, the dining room and the study and bedroom of the head of the household have been furnished in the Biedermeier style. The rooms are decorated with a multitude of original items, with the showpiece in the kitchen being its still working early English cooking stove. The museum uses no electric lights, making the experience all the more authentic.

The history of the building

The 19th-century Tartu Citizen’s Home Museum at Jaani 16 is situated in one of the oldest surviving timber buildings in the city. Constructed in 1744, it has stood the test of time despite the fires that ravaged the city in the second half of the 18th century and the decree to demolish all timber buildings in the city centre in 1775 after yet another fire.

At first the house only consisted of one room, three chambers and an attic. In the last decade of the 18th century a home made from stone was erected in the courtyard (the older part of Jaani 18 next door) along with auxiliary buildings. In 1828 the courtyard-facing extension of the main timber house was completed. The building has remained that way to this day, with the rooms being historically accurate.

The property has had many owners and residents: the headmaster of the city’s school; a master mason; a master carpenter; merchants; and many others with their families. Both buildings were nationalised during the Soviet occupation. Jaani 16 was divided into shared communal apartments; later it found use as a warehouse. The building was given over to the museum in 1989, and following thorough restoration the 19th-century Tartu Citizen’s Home Museum opened here in 1993.

Architects Kai Siim and Udo Tiirmaa from ARC Projekt drafted the restoration project, while the restoration work itself was performed by Restar. The exterior was restored based on surviving building elements, while the historical interior in the Biedermeier style typical of the second half of the 19th century was designed by interior architect Leila Pärtelpoeg.