Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 97,759 (as of 2024). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast of Riga, Latvia. Tartu lies on the Emajõgi river, which connects the two largest lakes in Estonia, Lake Võrtsjärv and Lake Peipus. From the 13th century until the end of the 19th century, Tartu was known in most of the world by variants of its historical name Dorpat.
Tartu, the largest urban centre of southern Estonia, is often considered the "intellectual capital city" of the country, Tartu – the intellectual centre of Estonia estlandia.deJonathan Bousfield The Rough Guide to Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania. Rough Guides UK. Page 126 Sergey Chernov. Tartu: Estonia's Intellectual and Theater Capital The Moscow Times, 24 December 2012 especially as it is home to the nation's oldest and most renowned university, the University of Tartu (founded in 1632).M. Mets & R. Raudsepp: Baltic Piling. CRC Press, 2013. . Tartu also houses the Supreme Court of Estonia, the Ministry of Education and Research, the Estonian National Museum, and the oldest Estonian-language theatre, Vanemuine. It is also the birthplace of the Estonian Song Festivals.
Tartu was designated as the European Capital of Culture in 2024. European Capital of Culture 2024 — Ministry of Culture Tartu – European Capital of Culture 2024 – Visit Estonia Tartu – European Capital of Culture 2024 – Tartu.ee
The first documented records of the area were made by later mediaeval chroniclers who described the events of early-11th-century Kievan Rus'. According to the Primary Chronicle (PVL) and Sofia First Chronicle (SPL), Yaroslav the Wise, Grand Prince of Kiev, invaded the region of Tartu in 1030, and after defeating the Chud, built his own fort there, and named it Yuryev. Tartu may have remained under Kievan Rus' control until 1061, when, according to the SPL, the Yuryev fort was burned down by Sosols (probably Oeselians, Sakala County, or another Estonian tribe). Soon afterwards the fort was rebuilt by locals. In the 12th century, local Ungannians on one side and troops from the neighbouring Novgorod Republic on the other side repeatedly raided each other. In those campaigns, the invaders were reportedly able to capture Tartu in 1133 or 1134, and in the winter of 1191–1192, however these temporary captures are not known to have brought any lasting territorial changes.
In 1262 the army of prince Dmitri of Pereslavl launched an assault on Dorpat, capturing and destroying the town. His troops did not manage to capture the bishop's fortress on Toome Hill. The event was recorded both in subsequent German and Old East Slavic chronicles, which also provided the first record of a settlement of Germanic peoples merchants and artisans which had arisen alongside the bishop's fortress.
In medieval times, after the Livonian Order was subsumed into the Teutonic Knights in 1236, the town became an important trading city. In the 1280s Dorpat joined the Hanseatic League.
The activities of both the grammar school and the seminary were stopped by the Polish–Swedish War. Already in late 1600 the forces of Charles IX of Sweden besieged the city defended by three banners of and the city's burghers. Despite repeated assaults, the Swedes could not enter the city. Finally in 1601 Capt. Hermann Wrangel switched sides, assaulted the castellan and opened the gates for the Swedish forces. The town was retaken by Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth on 13 April 1603 following a brief siege led by hetman Jan Karol Chodkiewicz; roughly 1000 Swedish soldiers surrendered and were escorted to Tallinn.
In the effect of yet another Polish-Swedish War, in 1625 Tartu was once again captured by Sweden, this time for good. In the effect of the 1629 Truce of Altmark the city became part of the Dominions of Sweden, which led to the foundation of the University of Tartu in 1632 by king Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden.
During the second half of the 19th century, Tartu was the cultural centre for Estonians in the era of Romantic nationalism. The city hosted Estonia's first song festival in 1869. Vanemuine, the first national theatre, was established in 1870. Tartu was also the setting for the foundation of the Society of Estonian Writers in 1872. Tartu railway station was opened in 1876 when Tapa–Tartu route was built. The station building was opened in 1877. In the history of tuberculosis, in 1891 The Veterinary College at Dorpat produced seminal research using the Tuberculin test on 1,000 cattle. Tuberculosis In European Countries, The Times, 25 February 1895
In 1893, the city was officially retitled to the ancient Russian name Yuryev. The university was subsequently Russification from 1895 on with the introduction of compulsory Russian in teaching. Much of the university property was relocated to Voronezh in 1918 and during the German occupation, the university worked under the name Landesuniversität Dorpat. During the Estonian War of Independence the university of Tartu was re-opened as an Estonian language university on 1 December 1919.
In 1920, the peace treaty between Soviet Russia and Finland was also signed in Tartu.
During the interwar period Tähtvere neighbourhood was built, former Raadi Manor buildings started to house Estonian National Museum (destroyed during Tartu Offensive in 1944) and art school Pallas was opened.
After the war, the Soviet authorities declared Tartu a "closed town for foreigners", as an airbase for bombers was constructed on Raadi Airfield, in the northeast outskirts of the city. It was one of the largest military airbases in the former Eastern Bloc and housed strategic bombers carrying nuclear bombs. On one end of an older strip of the runway, the new building of Estonian National Museum was built.
Tartu Airport was opened in the south of the city in 1946. Besides the airport Estonian Aviation Academy was established in 1993. Privately owned Estonian Aviation Museum, which is 5 km to the East of the airport (7 km by car), was opened to the public in 2002. During the 1944–1991 Soviet occupation the population of Tartu almost doubled from 57,000 to above 100,000 — due to mass immigration from Russia and other areas of the former Soviet Union, in large part because of the military airbase.
The AHHAA science centre relocated to a new building in 2011 and the Estonian National Museum's new main building opened in 2016.
The Tartu weather station is located in Tõravere village, which is about 20 kilometers from the city, so the actual temperature in the city may be slightly warmer than the official average temperatures.
At the beginning of the 21st century, many ICT enterprises and other high-tech companies have taken a foothold in Tartu. Notable examples include Playtech Estonia, Nortal (formerly Webmedia Group), ZeroTurnaround, Tarkon, Reach-U and Raintree Estonia. Skype has an office in Tartu. The university is one of the largest employers, which explains the large proportion of highly skilled professionals – researchers, professors, doctors, and Tartu University Clinic has been considered the largest employer of Tartu.
+Ethnic composition 1922-2021 ! rowspan="2" | Ethnicity ! colspan="2" | 1922 ! colspan="2" | 1934 ! colspan="2" | 1941 ! colspan="2" | 1959 ! colspan="2" | 1970 ! colspan="2" | 1979 ! colspan="2" | 1989 ! colspan="2" | 2000 ! colspan="2" | 2011 ! colspan="2" | 2021 | |||||||||
Estonians | 42459 | 84.5 | 51559 | 87.6 | 44732 | 93.7 | 56205 | 75.7 | 68129 | 75.3 | 77597 | 74.3 | 82031 | 72.3 | 80397 | 79.5 | 79700 | 81.7 | 76227 | 80.1 |
Russians | 2570 | 5.11 | 2640 | 4.48 | 1490 | 3.12 | - | - | 18009 | 19.9 | 21530 | 20.6 | 24604 | 21.7 | 16245 | 16.1 | 14340 | 14.7 | 12441 | 13.1 |
Ukrainians | - | - | 16 | 0.03 | - | - | - | - | 1277 | 1.41 | 1685 | 1.61 | 2369 | 2.09 | 1239 | 1.22 | 891 | 0.91 | 1107 | 1.16 |
Belarusians | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 551 | 0.61 | 749 | 0.72 | 1088 | 0.96 | 490 | 0.48 | 355 | 0.36 | 304 | 0.32 |
Finns | - | - | 49 | 0.08 | 27 | 0.06 | - | - | 1220 | 1.35 | 1271 | 1.22 | 1275 | 1.12 | 1073 | 1.06 | 706 | 0.72 | 900 | 0.95 |
Jews | 1115 | 2.22 | 920 | 1.56 | 0 | 0.00 | - | - | 420 | 0.46 | 346 | 0.33 | 267 | 0.24 | 154 | 0.15 | 113 | 0.12 | 81 | 0.09 |
Latvians | - | - | 278 | 0.47 | 1043 | 2.18 | - | - | 137 | 0.15 | 197 | 0.19 | 167 | 0.15 | 105 | 0.10 | 113 | 0.12 | 268 | 0.28 |
Germans | 3210 | 6.39 | 2706 | 4.60 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 103 | 0.10 | 133 | 0.12 | 123 | 0.12 | 118 | 0.12 | 306 | 0.32 |
Tatars | - | - | 6 | 0.01 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 112 | 0.11 | 146 | 0.13 | 83 | 0.08 | 65 | 0.07 | 45 | 0.05 |
Polish people | - | - | 144 | 0.24 | 71 | 0.15 | - | - | - | - | 164 | 0.16 | 179 | 0.16 | 137 | 0.14 | 92 | 0.09 | 133 | 0.14 |
Lithuanians | - | - | 26 | 0.04 | 15 | 0.03 | - | - | 102 | 0.11 | 127 | 0.12 | 159 | 0.14 | 96 | 0.09 | 74 | 0.08 | 109 | 0.11 |
unknown | 0 | 0.00 | 278 | 0.47 | 44 | 0.09 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 378 | 0.37 | 136 | 0.14 | 255 | 0.27 |
other | 902 | 1.79 | 254 | 0.43 | 335 | 0.70 | 18058 | 24.3 | 614 | 0.68 | 500 | 0.48 | 1002 | 0.88 | 649 | 0.64 | 897 | 0.92 | 3014 | 3.17 |
27,480 |
2,322 |
3,202 |
9,073 |
6,575 |
377 |
4,626 |
5,120 |
2,511 |
1,732 |
1,790 |
8,195 |
3,023 |
3,206 |
1,840 |
5,561 |
7,876 |
Tartu is also the seat of the Estonian University of Life Sciences, the Baltic Defence College, Estonian Aviation Academy (formerly known as Tartu Aviation College), and the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research. Other notable institutions include the Supreme Court of Estonia (re-established in Tartu in autumn 1993), the Estonian Historical Archives, Estonian National Museum, Estonian Sports and Olympic Museum as well as the oldest and renowned theatre in the country, Vanemuine, where they have a well-respected ballet company as well as theatre, opera and musical productions.
In music, there exists the Tartu school of composition.
Most of the sculptures in Tartu are dedicated to historical figures. Among them, the most famous are the Barclay de Tolly monument on Barclay Square in downtown, the Kissing Students monument on the town hall square and Gustav II Adolf´s monument on King's Square (Kuningaplats).
Most notable are the old Lutheran St. John's Church (, ), the 18th-century town hall, the university building, ruins of the 13th-century Tartu Cathedral, the botanical gardens, the main shopping street, many buildings around the town hall square and Barclay Square.
Parts of the medieval city wall are preserved in Lai Street and Vabaduse Street.
The historical slum area called Supilinn ( Soup Town) is located on the bank of river Emajõgi, near the town centre and is regarded as one of the few surviving "poor" neighbourhoods of 19th-century Europe. At the moment Supilinn is being rapidly renovated, undergoing a slow transformation from the historic slum into a prestigious high-class neighborhood. The active community embodied by the Supilinn Society is committed to preserving the heritage.
The Second World War destroyed large parts of the city centre and during the Soviet occupation, many new buildings were erected – notably the new Vanemuine Theater. The effects of the war are still witnessed by the relative abundance of parks and greenery in the historic centre. Typical Soviet-style neighbourhoods of blocks of high-rise flats were built between World War II and the restoration of Estonian independence in 1991, the largest such district being Annelinn.
Presently, Tartu is also known for several modern buildings of the "steel, concrete and glass" variation, but has managed to retain a mix of old and new buildings in the centre of town. Notable examples include the Tigutorn Tower and the Emajõe Centre, both built during the current period of independence; Tartu's tallest and second tallest towers, respectively. Tartu's large student population means that it has a comparatively thriving nightlife, with many nightclubs, bars, and restaurants, including the world's highest-ceiling pub, in the historic Gunpowder Cellar of Tartu.
Annually, in the summer, Tartu hosts the Hanseatic Days festival () to celebrate its Hanseatic heritage. The festival includes events such as handicraft markets, historic workshops and jousting tournaments.
Tartu is the home for basketball club Tartu Ülikool/Rock, which participates in the Korvpalli Meistriliiga and the Latvian-Estonian Basketball League.
Football club JK Tammeka Tartu, one of the Meistriliiga clubs, is located in Tartu. Their home stadium is the Tamme Stadium, which has a capacity of 1600. The city is also home to the Tartu JK Welco and FC Santos Tartu clubs, which play in the Esiliiga, the second division.
Tartu has a professional volleyball club, Tartu Volleyball, as well as the handball team, the Tartu Ülikool/Glassdrive, which plays in the second division of Estonian handball.
Tartu is also the hometown of Clement "Puppey" Ivanov, captain of Team Secret, a professional Dota 2 team. He won the first International, and was runner-up two years in a row with Natus Vincere.
The 2017 World Orienteering Championships were held in Tartu.
The annual running event Tartu Sügisjooks takes place in Tartu.
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