The Juhan Liiv Museum

The poet’s homestead breaks myths

The Juhan Liiv Museum, located in the Peipsiääre municipality of Tartu County, presents the life and work of one of Estonia’s most beloved poets, Juhan Liiv, and the history of the surroundings of his homestead.

In the former home of the Liiv family, you can see the life of Estonian peasants at the turn of 19th and 20th centuries and experience the conditions in which the poet with a complicated fate spent his childhood.

The museum’s permanent exhibition “If I Were a Poet” gives a thorough overview of the life and works of Juhan Liiv, studies the poet’s role in the Estonian psyche and explores some of the myths related to him. Juhan Liiv’s works can be viewed through both audio and video media. The permanent exhibition about Kodavere parish introduces the history and different cultures of the region: the Kodavere dialect, the heritage of the Vadja (Votic) peoples, and Old Believers and Baltic German nobles.