Juhan Liiv Museum

‘If only the forest were not there’. Juhan Liiv, an Estonian writer with a tragic destiny, spent his formative years near Alatskivi. His greatest dream was of the Lake Peipus, that was behind the forest from his home.

Juhan Liiv Museum is a homeplace of Juhan and his brother, Jakob Liiv. The exposition is essentially an open-air museum, which also helps to learn about the life of Estonian peasants at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. The exhibition house has a permanent exhibition “If I Were a Poet” that gives a thorough overview of the life and works of Juhan Liiv. The exhibition places the writer in a wider context, studies the place of Juhan Liiv in Estonian psyche and introduces myths related to the poet. You can learn about his works through sound and video recordings. Exhibition “Kodavere – a Good Big Chunk of Parish” introduces the past of the area and different cultures: the Kodavere dialect, Vadja heritage, the local Russian Orthodox community and Baltic German nobility. Every spring the museum, along with local municipality and Alatskivi School, hosts Juhan Liiv poetry competition for school youth.