“Tallinn Cathedral School – the cornerstone of education in Estonia”

The year 2019 marks an important milestone in Estonian education – 700 years have now passed since Tallinn Cathedral School was first mentioned in historical documents. As a celebration of this occasion, Tallinn City Museum and Tallinn Cathedral School have created an exhibition titled “Tallinn Cathedral School – the cornerstone of education in Estonia”. Centred around the history of the Tallinn Cathedral School, the historical exhibition illustrates the story of Estonian education throughout the centuries up until the mid-1900s. Included in the display are artefacts and memorabilia linked to distinguished alumni.

Tallinn Cathedral School is the oldest school still operating in Estonia and one of the oldest in the Baltic Sea region. A Latin cathedral school in the Middle Ages, it functioned as a trivial school (trivialskolan) providing primary education during Swedish rule and was later transformed into a German academic school for the nobility, eventually becoming a high school. In addition to the nobility and clerics, pupils included the children of merchants and scholars, mainly of German, Swedish, Finnish, Russian, but on rare occasion also Estonian descent. From among them emerged world-renowned scientists, explorers and political figures, but mainly pathfinders advancing life here in Estonia. In spite of shorter and longer breaks, Tallinn Cathedral School has always sprung back to life. In 2011, the Cathedral School reopened as a private Christian school providing basic education. For the first time in history, both boys and girls were admitted and classes take place in Estonian.

Curator: Ene Hiio
Designers: architectural firm b210 and design studio Ruum 414.
The exhibition is open to visitors at the Tallinn City Museum (Vene 17) from 8 October 2019 until 4 October 2020.

The exhibition is accompanied by a youth workshop “Students in old Tallinn”.

We’ll discover what life was like for school children 100, 300 and even 700 years ago. Together we’ll do exciting school tasks from bygone times and find out what kinds of tools students from various eras used for writing.

FOR: children from age 5, school students up to the fifth grade
LENGTH: 45 minutes – 1 hour
PRICE: 4 euros per person
BOOKING: haridus@linnamuuseum.ee, 5919 0980