Tallinn’s oldest museum is celebrating two anniversaries this year: 220 years since opening to visitors and 85 years as part of Tallinn City Museum.

In 2026, the House of Peter the Great in Kadriorg celebrates two important milestones: 220 years since it first opened to visitors as a museum, and 85 years as a branch of Tallinn City Museum. On April 29, the exhibition Tallinn’s Oldest Museum opens in the staircase gallery of the House of Peter the Great, telling the story of how the museum’s display has evolved over the course of two centuries.

The House of Peter the Great: a tourist popular destination already in the 19th century. Lorenz Heinrich Petersen. The House of Peter the Great in Kadriorg. Hand-colored lithograph, 1860–1870. TLM G 7167

The exhibition about the history of the museum extends from the vestibule to the staircase gallery walls. Through archival photographs and texts, visitors can trace the development of the museum’s display from its founding in the early nineteenth century to the present day. The timeline begins on the first floor beside the ceremonial portrait of Catherine II. Displayed here in the late 1930s and early 1940s, the portrait has now temporarily returned to its historic place.

Over more than two centuries, the permanent exhibition has undergone relatively few changes. At its core remains the furniture arranged throughout the residential rooms. During the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, however, the display was repeatedly enriched with new acquisitions — works of art, objects from Peter the Great’s House in Narva, archaeological finds, and other items.

The exhibition traces the course of the museum’s history and explores how and why some objects were added to, and later removed from, the display.

The exhibition remains open until September 30.

Curators: Maaja Gundjajeva, guide-curator of the House of Peter the Great, and museum director Denis Jatsenko

Exhibition designer: Jekaterina Poltavets (Katline Graphic Design)

Exhibition texts are available in Estonian, Russian, and English.

The House of Peter the Great is Tallinn’s oldest museum and has been open to visitors since 1806. Since January 29, 1941, it has been a branch of Tallinn City Museum. Located in Kadriorg Park, the house carefully preserves the atmosphere of the eighteenth century.