Permanent exhibition and Atla-Eeru Tavern

Permanent exhibition and Atla-Eeru Tavern

In summer, the tavern is open to visitors from Tuesday to Saturday 11-18. The exhibition in the barn building explores the history of the Atla-Eeru tavern and gives information about taverns, vodka-making and pipe-smoking. The exposition is accompanied by photos of the tavern and beautiful reproductions of Baltic-German artists' tavern themed paintings. 

The permanent exhibition of the Mahtra Peasantry Museum can be seen in three rooms of the main house of the museum. The first room shows details about Mahtra War (1858). The second room shows details about the life of peasantry in 19th century. The visitor is taken to a common room of a farm house, to a granary and to a larder. The third room shows women’s handicraft and men’s tools. There is also a ’manor corner’, a small display which exhibits some aspects of life of the Baltic German nobility in 19th century.

The most valuable part of the museum is Atla-Eeru Tavern – the only preserved peasant tavern building in the whole Estonia (built in 1811). As a building, it is a typical barn house of North Estonia, furnished according to the age. Nowadays, the Atla-Eru Tavern is a good place for children’s activities. You can learn to bake bread in the large barn kiln, you can measure your strength against the Christmas Goat (an ancient peasants’ Christmas practice) on the straw of the chamber floor, you can milk a „cow“... The museum offers this and many other interesting programmes. 

4.5 kilometers from the museum lies the Mahtra Battlefield. Nearby there is also the Blood field, where the tragic final scene of the Mahtra War took place.