Gallery: Estonian National Museum opens to public
Following its Thursday evening gala opening, the Estonian National Museum — 107 years in the making and ten years in the building — finally opened its doors to the general public at 10 a.m. on Saturday, offering services and information initially in Estonian, English and Russian and boasting hours' worth of exhibits which include plenty of things for visitors of all ages to look at, listen to, watch, read and even touch.
The Estonian National Museum (ERM), which includes 6,000 square meters, or nearly 65,000 square feet, of exhibition space as well as a restaurant, a café and a museum gift shop, among other amenities, opened to visitors on its first regular day of operation on Saturday.
While the English- and Russian-language pages of ERM's official website have yet to go online, as reported on Friday night, a group of volunteers took the initiative to create an unofficial English-language mirror, online in time for Saturday morning's opening, for use until the former is completed.
Signs and services on location, however, are already available in the museum's three primary languages — Estonian, English and Russian. Museum visitors are also given chipped cards according to their language of preference with which they can wave over any of the museum's electronic information signs, including those behind glass, in order to change the display language. Other languages, including Latvian and Finnish, have been promised to follow in the future.
ERM is located at Muuseumi tee 2, 60532 Tartu ("ERM" stop on the city bus no. 27 route, which departs from the city center at the "Kesklinn" stop in front of Kvartal Shopping Center). The museum can be contacted via telephone at +372 7350 400 and email at [email protected].
ERM is open Tuesday-Sunday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and on Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; the museum is closed to visitors on Mondays and during scheduled evening cultural events.
Editor: Editor: Aili Vahtla
