For travellers
For meetingsWhen you come to Pärnu, it is an excellent idea to visit one of the local museums. If you count all the museums in Pärnu, there are 25 in total. Many museums in Pärnu are related to historical lifestyles, but there are also several car-themed museums, an art museum, a museum and an educational centre introducing the natural environment, and much more. All the museums in Pärnu can be divided into four major categories:
- For history lovers
- For technology lovers
- For culture lovers
- Something special
Museums for history lovers
The largest museum in the region is undoubtedly Pärnu Museum, which is located right in the city centre. There you can visit the permanent exhibition ‘11,000 Years of History – Experiences from the Past’. In addition, there are various themed exhibitions. The city is also home to Koidula Museum, where you can see the former home of Lydia Koidula and Johann Voldemar Jannsen. One of the county’s most important museums is Kihnu Museum, located in a UNESCO heritage site, Kihnu, and showcasing Kihnu’s culture and lifestyle.
In addition, the following museums are waiting for history lovers in Pärnu:
Museums for technology lovers
Coming from or going to Tallinn, you will find the Car Museum in Halinga, right next to the highway, where you can see cars, mostly from the Soviet era. In Lihula, there is the Kirsi Vintage Vehicle Museum. In addition, Lavassaare is home to Estonia’s only narrow-gauge railway museum. There are more than 80 exhibits on site, and separate rides on the railway near the museum are organised as well.
Museums for culture lovers
The city of Pärnu has two art museums: Pärnu Museum of New Art and Pärnu City Gallery with two exhibition halls in the Town Hall and Pärnu Artists’ House. All of them have temporary exhibitions. At the Museum of New Art, works from the museum’s collection are on permanent display, and the long-running exhibition series ‘Man and Woman’ can also be expected every summer. Kurgja is home to the unique Carl Robert Jakobson Farm Museum, where you can get an insight into this way of life. Farm animals live on site and it is possible to get to know the former rural life.
Something special
Museums that are difficult to include in the previous categories can be added here. In Pernova Nature House in Pärnu you can learn about the local natural environment. In addition, a unique new dome cinema and planetarium were opened there. Estonian Peat Museum in Tootsi allows you to get acquainted with one of the symbolic buildings of Pärnu County, a briquette factory built in 1938. The exhibition introduces peat as a natural resource and its processing.
