Military Theme Park

Museum of Patriotic Education / Valga Militaarteemapark-Muuseum / Valga Isamaalise Kasvatuse Püsiekspositsioon SA

They offer a museum, live-action, but also a guest house and regular restaurant. Check out the website (not in English), in case you are up for such things. The military museum has two foundations—military and patriotism. The military is represented by a collection of weapons and uniforms, and the patriotism by the work of Estonian fire-fighters and the police on the example of the "Bronze Night" events in Tallinn. Somewhere between these two extremes is an extensive exhibition dedicated to the Estonian army of the times of the first republic and especially to the war for independence. There is a lot of information on outfits, insignia, biographies of heroes—immortalized in the names of Estonian streets—and numerous photographs. The texts are only in Estonian, so history lovers will have to pre-book an excursion in Russian, English or German (€9.60). However, it is even interesting without an excursion, at least from ethnographic considerations, since the museum is created on pure enthusiasm, which is the curious thing about it already. Also there are monuments of modern history: a wooden cannon, created by Estonian volunteers in 1989 due to lack of a normal weapons (looks like a 17th-century object); a hut, which was used by Estonian border guards in the early years of independence; a T-34 tank installed in Soviet times in the bloom of Valga and exploded in 1990 by Estonian nationalists. The hut and the tank are part of the outdoor exposition, which can be partially seen from behind the fence, without going to the museum. Finally, have a look in the museum/souvenir store, where helmets, jars and other war items are sold.

• museum
• outdoors
• history

Address

Pikk 16

Hours

Tue-Sun 09:00-17:00

Price

Museum €5, Accommodation €10, etc.

Website

isamaalinemuuseum.ee (opens in a new tab)