Exposition

of Estonian peasant architecture.

In picturesque Estonia, rich with limestone, people have since time immemorial lived in the woods, worshipped sacred trees and drawn vitality from them. Today, the forest is still our wealth.

We have also been cultivating our fields for almost 4000 years - we are the northernmost tiller people in the world. Our nature and lifestyle that has remained stable for millennia shaped the type and appearance of the Estonian homestead.

The traditional structures built by the country folk were mostly made from pine or fir felled at the winter's peak, sometimes from stone. Even in the beginning of the 20th century, in the corners of some yards a conical tent still remained made from poles: a summer kitchen - such dwellings date back to the Stone Age when they had been used by hunters and fishers. Yet most of the yard buildings were/are built from cross-joined horizontal beams. This is how Estonians built for at least 1000 years - until the beginning of the 20th century.

In Northern and Western Estonia, where limestone is widely available, it was used to build, without a binder, smithies and summer kitchens, clay mortar-based threshing-floors, and from the middle of the 19th century also lime mortar-based stables, barns and such from limestone and granite. The roof would be covered with rye straw inland or reeds close to the seashore, while some inflammable structure would have limestone plates or split-boards (split off from a log by means of wedges), and from the middle of the 19th century also sliver, chip or shingle.

The buildings of the Estonian farmyard were situated quite loosely around the spacious yard lawn, with the barn in most cases facing south and turning its back to the cold winds blowing from the north, and the repositories placed so as to be seen from the window. The yard was surrounded with stone and wooden fences and shaded by verdurous trees.

The most important and characteristic building traditions of farm people was the home. No later than from the 16th century (some information dates back to the 14th century) and until the end of the 19th century, Estonians lived in unique barns, or, like the people in Saaremaa like to call it, "elu" ("life"). Under its large roof, the northern grain-grower enjoyed the convenient combination of the barn room (or "hut," as it was called in Southern Estonia) and bulky oven that heated it well, used for kiln-drying grain in the autumn and for living in the winter; the spacious threshing-floor used for threshing and winnowing grain and for keeping horses and plough-oxen in the winter, as well as the cold chamber. The living quarters underwent preening at the time when farms were made available for purchase by peasants who used to be mere tenants, in the second half of the 19th century. The chambers became heated and several chambers with wooden floors were built for the home. Some ovens received chimneys and food was made on stoves instead of fireplaces. At the same time, the more demanding Mulgi (Southern Viljandi County) farmers began building manors instead of barns. Next to the old farm buildings - a granary, shed, sauna, smithy and cellar - new detached stables, grain-dryers and barns appeared. Before the Second World War, in the course of the home improvement movement, many houses received sheeting and a coat of paint.

Even today, our villages preserve old farms with structures that blend in with the surrounding nature.