The wisdom of life from generation to generation. The permanent exhibition of the Heimtali Museum’s multi-layered collections includes school customs from a hundred years ago, old documents as well as tools from the surrounding area. However, the collection of national textiles and the library of folk art, home culture and art are especially rich. A number of piglets, dogs, cats and other domestic animals woven in glove patterns are waiting in the children’s playroom.
The coffins, chests of drawers and cabinets of the museum are filled with gloves and socks, wedding and sleigh blankets, lace and skirts, which patterns and masterful execution delight both experts and all others interested. For those whose eyes shine with folk art, we open the coffins-cabinets. There is plenty to discover.
The curator and designer of the permanent exhibition is Anu Raud.
Heimtali Museum visit and ticket information:
Location: Heimtali, Viljandi Municipality, Viljandimaa
The museum is open Tue – Sat from 9:00 to 17:00
Full ticket 4 euros, discount ticket 2 euros
History of Heimtali
The Heimtali Museum is located in the old village school, which was completed in 1864. At the same time, the school also served as a meeting place for the villagers. In 1932, the school moved to Heimtali manor, where it is still located today. However, the old school building was converted into a residential building. In the mid-1980s, a museum introducing local life was founded in the building.
In 1991, Anu Raud founded a textile museum room in her father’s farm. It soon expanded into the old Heimtali village school building and joined the museum there.
The museum collections contain materials related to local school life and tools from the surrounding area, as well as cabinets and coffins filled with national textile samples from Mulgimaa and Kihnu. Why you can see Kihnu skirts in Mulgimaa is a separate story that can be heard on the spot if you wish.
Heimtali is a museum of natural history, which whole value lies primarily in the fact that the objects have remained where they were once made and used. The visitor gets a sense of life a century ago, when the human world was largely confined to the municipality where he/she was born and when globalization as a word had not yet been invented.
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Estonian National Museum, Anu Raud donated the Heimtali Museum of Natural History to the Estonian state. By a regulation of 27 May, the Minister of Culture approved an amendment to the statutes of the ENM, on the basis of which the Heimtali Museum of Natural History became a structural unit of the ENM from the 1st June 2010 as the “Heimtali Museum of the ENM”.
