Kadriorg

Easily accessible from Old Town by tram or bus, Kadriorg is not only one of Tallinn’s wealthiest areas, but one of the most prosperous in all of Estonia. The neighborhood is dominated by Kadrioru Park, which contains a palace, the presidential residence, three-fifths of the Eesti Kunstimuuseum (Art Museum of Estonia) and a Japanese garden. Tallinn has some wonderful green spaces, but you would never realize it if you didn’t venture outside of the old medieval town walls.

Jaapani Aed (Japanese Garden)

Kadrioru Park’s Jaapani Aed was designed by Japanese architect, Masao Sone and completed in 2011. Sone wanted to incorporate elements of Tallinn into the garden; all of the stones are carefully placed to recreate the angles of the rooftops of Old Town. There are also no benches in the park as one is supposed to be continually moving through a Japanese garden, an ideal Estonians have embraced as they move past the Soviet occupation of the 20th Century.

Kadrioru Loss (Kadriorg Palace)

Kadrioru loss, the technicolor wonder straight out of a Gene Kelly/Cyd Charisse movie musical, was commissioned in 1718 by czar Peter the Great as a gift to his wife, Catherine I, after conquering Estonia following his victory in the Siege of Tallinn. The palace was renovated and reinvented several times over the centuries until it finally became home to the Eesti Kunstimuuseum (Art Museum of Estonia) in 1921. The Soviets allowed the museum to remain open but provided little funding and both the building and the collection suffered for it.

After Estonian independence in 1991, the palace received a facelift and was reopened to the public in 2000. The Eesti Kunstimuuseum has since grown in size and is now housed in five buildings throughout Tallinn, three of which are in Kadrioru Park. You can purchase admission to each museum separately, buy a pass to all five museums or use the Tallinn Card to gain entry to dozens of museums, as well as have unlimited access to public transportation within the city.

Kadrioru Kunstimuuseum (Kadriorg Art Museum)

Truthfully, the palace itself is more interesting than the art collection Kadrioru Kunstimuuseum houses inside. This branch of the art museum contains 16th-20th Century Western European art and who comes to Estonia to see Flemish paintings anyway? Besides the palace’s Baroque architecture, there was an interesting special exhibit displaying Soviet propaganda art from the Estonian SSR in the 1940s. An example above portrays rural Estonians, though still dressed in traditional garb, happily marching in Soviet parades, understanding where their true loyalties need to lie.

Vabariigi Presidendi Kantselei (Office of the President of the Republic)

Not far from the Kadrioru Loss is the Vabariigi Presidendi Kantselei, the official office of the President of Estonia, which was only completed in 1938, allowing the then President, Konstantin Päts, only two years to govern from the building until the first Soviet occupation in 1940.

The current President, Kersti Kaljulaid, is both the first female and the youngest person to ever hold the office in Estonia. I was told that she takes a daily walk through Kadrioru Park and is happy to speak with any constituents she bumps into along the path. I sadly had no such luck meeting her, but I did get to witness the modest changing of the guard ceremony that takes place every afternoon in front of the pink building.

Kumu

Another five minutes down the path will take you to Kumu, the most exciting and worthwhile of the Eesti Kunstimuuseum options. If you think I accidentally posted a photo of Kiasma, one of Helsinki’s contemporary art museums, you can be forgiven for the mistake. Kumu was designed by a Finnish architect and is very similar in design and layout with its doppelgänger across the sea.

Kumu is all about Estonian art, tracking its progress from the 18th Century through 1991; the top floor is devoted to rotating temporary exhibitions of 21st Century avant-garde installations. Naturally, I made a beeline for the entire floor entitled, “Conflicts and Adaptations: Estonian Art of the Soviet Era (1940-1991).”

Here the curators group Estonian Soviet art by theme and time period. Some of the works shown were never allowed to be exhibited during the Soviet occupation while others fell more in-step with Stalin’s propaganda ideals. After Stalin’s death, there was definitely a thaw on the stringency of the censorship placed on visual artists, but if anyone colored too far out the lines they would be sure to find themselves reined in.

I think I must have photographed every piece on the floor and will spare you from seeing three hundred pictures of Soviet art, but here are my painstakingly-chosen favorites:

There was also a section on Soviet humor that helped Estonians find relief from the absurd situations in which they found themselves. Here are some of my favorites:

The six paradoxes of socialism:

1. Everyone works as if they were on holiday, but targets are met.
2. Targets are met, but there is nothing to buy in shops.
3. There is nothing to buy in shops, but people still have a little something in their fridges.
4. There is a little something in the fridges, but everyone is discontent.
5. Everyone is discontent, but no one protests.
6. No one protests, but the prisons are full of people

An old man asks at a grocer’s, “Have you got Dutch cheese?” “No, we haven’t.” “Have you got Krakow sausage?” “No, we haven’t.” “Have you got Doctor’s sausage?” “No, we haven’t got that either. What an amazing memory you have!”

During a language lesson, “God sent the crow a little piece of cheese,” dictates the teacher. “But teacher, you said God didn’t exist,” says Volodya. “Well, there is no cheese either. What shall we do, dismiss the class?”

Two boys are talking through the Berlin Wall. The West Berliner boast, “I’ve got an orange.” “But we’ve got socialism.” “Don’t brag, we can have socialism, too, if we want.” The East Berliner replies, “But then you won’t have any more oranges.”

Rahvapark (People’s Park)

There are many wonderful mini-parks within Kadrioru Park, but the most popular has to be Rahvapark (People’s Park). This section of Kadriorg was developed during Estonia’s First Republic period when in 1935 a competition was held to design a park for the people that would incorporate traditional Estonian elements into space where citizens of all social classes could come and relax. The layout of the gardens replicates the weaving of an Estonian woman’s classic belt; the flowers represent the colors of different villages in Estonia and so forth.

Even though Rahvapark is only a ten-minute tram ride from Old Town, it is remarkably tourist-free. You might have to compete with some wedding parties taking photographs, but otherwise, this is a place for local families to come and chill. With so much to see in Kadriorg you could probably spend a full day here, although restaurants are in short supply within the park, so a picnic lunch might be in order. Hopefully, you are beginning to see that a seven-hour cruise stop will never be enough to do Tallinn justice…