Viking Exhibitions in Tallinn

Since I found out about the Viking exhibition in Tallinn earlier this year, I wanted to go. Now, during the autumn holiday, I finally got the chance... and visited not only one but two Viking exhibitions!

The first one was ”Vikings: The Reality behing Legends” in Lennusadam, the Estonian Maritime Museum. The objects of the exhibition come from the Historical Museum in Sweden and include all sorts of things from weapons, jewellery and pottery to (reconstructed) boats, sails and rune stones. You could try on a Viking helmet (no horns! Seriously. No horns.) and try carrying a Viking shield.

There are other interactive and hands-on pieces as well (such as writing your name in runes), which my 8-year-old daughter enjoyed enormously (though she would have enjoyed the exhibition anyway – when she first heard about the Viking exhibitions she asked, ”Can we go, can we go, please!” and when we told her that this was exactly why we were going to Tallinn, she jumped for joy!).

If you don’t know much about Vikings, the exhibition is a good place to learn: the numerous objects on display are accompanied by long, informative texts. You can learn about the Viking culture, beliefs, history etc. If you are a Viking enthusiast, you will perhaps not find a huge amount of new information here, but... well, you're a Viking enthusiast! You will want to see this.

This is a rather large exhibition – it took us about two hours to view it... and I could go back. ;) Catch it before January 15th, 2017.

Here are a few pics (we took many):

The other exhibition was ”Viking Era Treasures in Estonia” at the Fat Margaret’s Tower. This exhibition focuses on Viking Age finds in Estonia and the importance of Estonia as part of the trade routes of those days. This is a much smaller exhibition; still, it was worth a visit. The rest of the tower is dedicated to Estonian seafaring museum.