The Koidula Museum

The birthplace of Estonia’s national awakening 

The Koidula Museum presents the life and activities of two great minds of the Estonian national awakening – Johann Voldemar Jannsen and his daughter, Lydia Koidula. The museum is located in Pärnu in the residence of the Jannsen family, which was also a school building and a newspaper’s editorial office at the same time. Johann Voldemar Jannsen taught children at school and also published the Estonian newspaper Perno Postimees. In the Koidula Museum, you can get an idea of the Jannsen family’s life, upbringing, and economic issues. Their later life in Tartu and their role in the events of Estonia’s national awakening are also reflected in the museum.

The development of Lydia Jannsen to a national poetess called Koidula (Singer of the Dawn), her education, literary role models, and correspondence with the writer Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald, the creator of the national epic Kalevipoeg, have a special exhibit on display. The exhibition also talks about Koidula’s years of marriage in Kronstadt, her travels in Europe, the split in the Estonian national movement, her father’s breakdown, and Lydia’s struggle with a terminal illness. Concerts and theater performances often take place on the open-air stage of the Koidula Museum. In the open-air gallery, you can view art and history exhibitions throughout the year.