Eesti Ajaloomuuseum

About the museum

The Great Guild Hall on Pikk Street is one of the most distinguished secular buildings of medieval Tallinn. The Great Guild of Tallinn, whose members were the city’s richest merchants, was founded around 1325. In 1406 the guild bought a plot near the Town Hall, and a high-gabled building in the late Gothic style was completed at the beginning of the 15th century. The best-known detail of the façade is a portal with oak doors and bronze lion-head door knockers, considered the finest example of medieval bronze casting in Tallinn.

Besides being a feasting place for the merchants, the house was the starting and finishing point of processions. Weddings, court hearings and theatre performances took place there, and after St Olaf’s Church burned in 1820 services were also held there. From 1872 the building was used by the Tallinn Stock Exchange Committee and was called the Stock Exchange House. In 1896 the first film screening in Estonia took place here. A wine cellar that had existed in the building since the Middle Ages became known in the 19th century as “Das Süsse Loch” (“Magus Auk”, the sweet hole).

The History Museum was given the building in the 1950s; after a thorough restoration it opened to visitors in 2011. In 2014 the Great Guild Hall was one of the first sites to receive the European Heritage Label. Today the Estonian History Museum presents Hanseatic trade, the wealth of the Middle Ages and the story of the Great Guild here.

Highlights

• Portal of the guild house: oak doors with bronze lion-head door knockers
• Exhibition “Eliidi võim. Suurgildi lugu” (Power of the Elite: The Story of the Great Guild) in the former wine cellar
• Coin room “Ratsa rikkaks?!” on means of payment used in Estonia through the ages
• “Legendide kamber” (Chamber of Legends) with 88 rare objects
• Weapons room “Sõjad Eesti ajaloos” (Wars in Estonian History)
• European Heritage Label (2014)

Permanent exhibitions

• Eliidi võim. Suurgildi lugu – The former wine cellar presents the Great Guild, the association of the great merchants of the medieval Hanseatic city, and the history of the guild house. Visitors can see the walls of an earlier building uncovered during the renovation, medieval wells and archaeological finds connected with the wine cellar.
• Ratsa rikkaks?! Maksevahendid Eestis läbi aegade – The former excise chamber displays means of payment used in Estonia, from the museum’s numismatic collection; the treasure chamber shows some particularly rare objects.
• Relvakamber. Sõjad Eesti ajaloos – The exhibition gives an overview of wars in Estonian history and of the weapons used in them.
• Legendide kamber – The renewed permanent display on the basement level presents 88 rare objects linked to legends. Its central place of honour is a bottle found during the renovation of the Tallinn Town Hall pharmacy, in which a hidden letter tells the story of 1827.

Operated by

Eesti Ajaloomuuseum SA

Admission & discounts

Free admission: On 19 February (the History Museum’s birthday) and 18 May (International Museum Day) admission is free.

Museum card holders enter free. Holders of the TallinnCard and Cultour Card, ICOM members, staff of Estonian museums and members of the Estonian Museums Association, persons who were repressed, journalists on presentation of a press card, and Ukrainian citizens on presentation of a document also enter free. Holders of the CLUB ONE card receive 15% off the full and family tickets.

Accessibility

• Wheelchair accessible: no information
• Elevator: no information
• Accessible restroom: no information
• Accessible parking: no information
• Service dogs welcome: no information
• Tactile models & exhibits: no information
• Sign language tours: no information
• Easy-to-read materials: no information
• Audio description: no information

The ground floor of the Great Guild Hall can be reached by an accessible lift from the Börsi passage.

Kids & families

Family ticket €28, valid for two adults and children; children up to 8 years old enter the museum free.

Getting there & parking

Bicycles can be parked beside the steps of the main entrance.

Amenities & dining

The museum hasn’t published any information on this.

Events & venue rental

• Spaces for rent

Rooms in the Great Guild Hall can be booked for events; bookings by email to tellimus@ajaloomuuseum.ee.

Plan your visit