Estonian National Museum

The museum opened in 2016 on the site of the Raadi Soviet airbase, and the architects took the runway as their starting point: the building rises out of the tarmac as a single long glass wedge, thin at one end and five storeys at the other. Choosing that site deliberately - an occupation-era military installation - was itself the statement.

What you actually see

• Encounters - the main permanent exhibition, running the length of the building through Estonian everyday life from prehistory to the present.
• The reverse chronology - the walk works backwards in time, leaning on objects and interiors rather than text panels.
• The language cards - a card system that switches the labelling as you go.
• Echo of the Urals - the wider Finno-Ugric world, Sami, Mari, Khanty and Udmurt among others, covered at a scale little else in Europe matches.

When to go

Any season, since it is fully indoors and large enough to absorb a whole wet day. Weekday mornings avoid the school groups, which arrive in numbers.

Honest expectations

It is genuinely big and easy to underestimate. Three hours is the realistic minimum for the two permanent exhibitions, and rushing them defeats the design.

The building sits outside the city on a windswept former airfield - the walk from the nearest bus stop is exposed, and there is nothing else at Raadi.

Nearby

Tartu old town and the university are fifteen minutes back into the city. AHHAA science centre is beside the bus station.