If you’re travelling between Tallinn and Tartu then it’s well worth stopping off in Põltsamaa, a provincial market town grouped around the grizzled remains of its thirteenth-century castle.

It was built by Master of the Teutonic Order Otto von Rodenstein to defend the main trade routes leading south from Tallinn. During the sixteenth-century Livonian Wars it briefly became the centre of the short-lived Kingdom of Livonia, a puppet-state established by Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible.

The castle was subsequently rebuilt as an aristocratic residence by Woldemar Johann von Lauw (1712-1786). Sadly, the castle’s spectacular rococo interiors were pillaged by Bolsheviks, and then the whole edifice burned down in 1941.

A reconstructed part of the castle now holds the engrossing Põltsamaa Museum, which covers the history of the castle, displays the products of its eighteenth-century porcelain factory, and boasts a new Rococo Hall recreating a sense of the castle’s former finery.

Practical Info

Põltsamaa is right beside the main Tartu-Tallinn road.

Buses: Hourly Tallinn-Tartu buses pick up and drop off on the edge of town, within walking distance of the castle.

Põltsamaa Museum: Open: mid-May – September Monday - Sunday 10:00 - 18:00; October – mid-May Monday - Saturday 10:00 - 17:00. Tickets: €4