Cultural gem: Struve 2
Cultural gem: Struve 2 takes part in Open House Tartu. Admission is free. No registration needed - just turn up.
- Address
- W. Struve tänav 2, Tartu, Eesti
- Open
- Sat, 19. September; Sun, 20. September
- Tours
- Sat, 19. September: 11:00, 12:00, 13:00, 14:00, 15:00, 16:00 | Sun, 20. September: 11:00, 12:00, 13:00, 14:00, 15:00, 16:00
- Tour languages
- eesti
- Architects
- unknown
- Tour length
- 45-60 min
- Max. visitors
- 20
Behind a somewhat forgotten exterior at Struve 2 lies a cultural-historical gem whose walls conceal ultra-rare books and an extraordinarily rich past. It is home to the Naturalists’ Society – founded in 1853, it is the oldest and only continuously operating scientific society in the Baltics. From 1829 to 1840, the house was home to Johann Jakob Friedrich Wilhelm Parrot, son of the university’s first rector, a medical scientist and a professor of physics, and one of Russia’s first mountaineers. It was right from this spot that his famous 1829 expedition to Mount Ararat began. The house has also hosted naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, writer Khachatur Abovian, the father of embryology Karl Ernst von Baer, and linguists F. J. Wiedemann and Johannes Aavik. Struwe 2 is one of just ten wooden buildings to survive the Great Fire of Tartu in 1775, and the only remaining structure marking the historic beginning of Tähe Street. It was first mentioned in records in 1758. Between 1803 and 1805, it housed the university’s – and indeed all of Russia’s – first anatomical theatre. After World War II, the building served as a kindergarten attended by writer Jaan Kaplinski and human rights activist Mart Niklus, among others. In the 1970s and 1980s, it was home to the addiction treatment department of the Tartu Psychoneurological Hospital.
Due to stairs and the lack of an elevator, the building is unfortunately not fully accessible for wheelchairs or mobility aids
In front of the building’s main entrance, outdoors
Open House Tartu