Supilinn

Supilinn, soup town, lies on low ground beside the Emajogi northwest of the Tartu centre, and it got its name from its streets: Herne, Oa, Kartuli, Meloni, Marja, pea, bean, potato, melon, berry. It grew in the nineteenth century as a poor suburb of small wooden houses on land that flooded, and stayed poor through the twentieth century, which is why it was never redeveloped and the timber housing survives. From the 2000s it has been steadily renovated, with a residents' society, cafes, small businesses and rising prices, though enough unrestored houses remain to show what it was. The riverbank, a park and a swimming spot on the Emajogi run along one edge.

What you actually see

• The vegetable streets - the lanes named after peas, beans and potatoes.
• Wooden houses - the nineteenth-century timber housing stock.
• The riverbank - the Emajogi shore and park along the district edge.
• Renovation in progress - the mix of restored and unrestored buildings.

When to go

May to September for walking the streets in leaf; the district works year round. Weekday mornings are quietest. The Supilinn days festival in spring brings street events.

Honest expectations

The houses are private homes and nothing is open to visitors; this is a walk, not a sight. Some streets remain rough and unrenovated. There is little signage or interpretation. It takes an hour or two.

Nearby

Toome hill lies southeast; Tartu old town is beyond it.