Tartu Nature House is a small green oasis in the middle of the city. A beautiful park surrounds the centre, where visitors can familiarise themselves with different educational trails, a beaver dam meant for humans, gardens, a viewing platform and children’s play area.

The innovative and sustainably built house works as environmental education centre, hobby school and a visitors centre. At the heart of the building is the winter garden where you’ll find various exotic plant species, as well as tortoises.

Take a virtual tour: https://www.tartuloodusmaja.ee/vtuur/
Or visit us! We also offer guided tours.

Admission tickets:
September – May 3 eur/2 eur/10 eur
June – August = 5 eur/3 eur/13 eur

Opening hours: Monday – Friday 10am – 6pm

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Our summer exhibitions 2024:

Natural science exhibition “Fathers and Sons“

The focus of the exhibition “Fathers and Sons” are the fathers in the animal and plant kingdom, their association with their descendants, the duration of their generations and the future of the species. The exhibition is divided into several major themes and offers something to visitors of all ages. In addition to the roles of fathers in raising their offspring, the exhibition makes complex topics such as genetics and reproduction more understandable. The cellular level is also under observation – with the help of moulages and games, an otherwise invisible world is opened to the eye to better understand conception and heredity.

Painting exhibition “From Dark to Bright”

Estonian artist’s Kaie Shestakova-Karu beautiful natural paintings bring a blossoming spring and summer to the Nature House. The author himself characterizes his own works as follows: “Colours play an important part in my life and that is precisely why my works are characterized by a great abundance of colour. There was a period where I liked to paint pastosely and there was also a time when my paintings were in mostly dark tones. I have gotten inspiration for creating my paintings from my home garden, pets, poetry, music and theatre.” Kaie Shestakova-Karu has graduated from Tartu Art School and is a member of the Estonian Artists Association.

This summer Tartu Nature House hosts the exhibition “Fathers and Sons“ which concentrates on fathers as caregivers in the animal and plant kingdom!

The exhibition is divided into several major themes and offers something to visitors of all ages. In addition to the roles of fathers in raising their offspring, the exhibition makes complex topics such as genetics and reproduction more understandable. The cellular level is also under observation – with the help of moulages and games, an otherwise invisible world is opened to the eye to better understand conception and heredity.

The focus of the exhibition “Fathers and Sons” are the fathers in the animal and plant kingdom, their association with their descendants, the duration of their generations and the future of the species. “Paternal care in nature has been given very little attention and the importance of fathers is generally rather underestimated, yet it is vital to the continuation of the species,” says Lennart Lennuk, curator of the orginal exhibition.

The visitor will see shining examples of Estonian species that prove that fatherhood occurs in many animal groups, but also colorful examples of males with no paternal care. The exhibition also finds out what kind of fathers are for example wolves, bears and stickleback fish, and what role they play in raising their offspring.

Several exhibits offer playful activities where visitors can test their skills and knowledge. You can find the right nests for different species of birds and lead a grain of pollen on its journey to the right destination, try to build a nest yourself or try your hand at the game of determining the sex of a bird, mammal, insect and plant.

The exhibition is created by the Estonian Museum of Natural History. All texts are in estonian, english and russian.

The exhibition is open until the 28th of August

Mon-Fri 10am-18pm

Ticket: full ticket 5€/discount ticket 3€/family ticket 13€

Why can you felt sheep wool but not dog wool? How does Core-Tex material work? Why does drying laundry outside gives it a special smell? What kind of clothes are made from wood and which from plastic bottles? What do the labels on our clothes tell us? Who invented velcro and how?

This year’s Tartu Nature House’s summer exhibition tells the stories of our clothing. What is the origin, history, properties, uses and production technology of various materials, as well as their environmental effects? The clothes on our backs are one of the most casual everyday things but it is necessary to know what are they made of, where are they produced, what their impact is on the environment and what our choices really are.

At the exhibition, you can look at various fibers, materials and fabric types under magnification, try diffrent handicraft technologies, explore the journey of clothing around the world, get to know the personal life stories of five T-shirts, look for labels on your own clothes and enjoy playful activities like the button sea. The exhibition is intended for the whole family – there are playful activities for both children and environmental information with moments of nostalgia for adults.

The exhibition was largely put together from recycled materials sourced from both home wardrobes and second-hand shops. Many of these exhibits were provided by the people who work at the Nature House or by their friends and family. Some materials even came from the Tallinn zoo 🙂

The exhibition is in Estonian and English.

The exhibition was made possible with the support of the Estonian Research Council.

Open from 26.05 until 14.09 from Mon-Fri at 10am-6pm.

Entrance with house ticket: discount ticket 3€/full ticket 5€/family ticket 13€

If you are interested in Japanese culture and language then join the Japanese cultural evening in Tartu Nature House on the 25th of February at 17:00 o’clock.

We will try some origami and calligraphy, learn some simple Japanese phrases, try Japanese snacks and play traditional games.

The cultural evening is hosted by students and their sensei from Sophia University, Tokyo. The activities take place in english.

The participation fee is 2€.

Tartu Nature House hosts its traditional early mushroom exhibition where a wide selection of mushrooms from Southern-Estonian forests, meadows, parks and lodges is displayed. If lucky, 100-150 different species can be seen. In the small mushroom laboratory you can also get acquainted with the mycelium, spore leaves and tubes and animals living in fungi. Mushrooms growing in the park of the nature house are also marked during the exhibition.

Mushroom exhibition 13.-16.09
Tartu Nature House, Lille 10
10:00 -18:00

TICKET: Adults 3€ / pupils, students, pensioners 2€ / children under 5 years free of charge

Facebook event (in estonian)

Additional information:

Liina Vakrööm
exhibition manager
liina.vakroom@tartuloodusmaja.ee

Dear parents and students!

We are pleased to announce that the registration for Tartu Nature House 2022/2023 hobby classes is now open!

Tartu Nature School is a child and environmentally friendly hobby school. We offer the joy of discovery and new knowledge to more than five hundred children and young people each year. We often go and spend time in nature, but we are also active indoors and in the laboratory.

Although the classes are in Estonian, we also welcome non-Estonian speaking children and young adults in our activities and it is possible to participate in some classes on the basis of English. It is a great way to practice Estonian, learn about local nature and find new friends!

There are multiple estonian speaking classes that welcome english speaking children in which the teacher will translate the activities and assignments.

HOBBY SCHOOL CLASSES

Class: Little Naturalists