Museum story

The museum operates under the Ministry of Climate and is a structural unit of the Transport Administration. We opened our doors to visitors in 2005 with the aim of collecting, preserving, researching, and presenting Estonia’s road heritage, as well as the history of road construction and traffic.

Covering nearly ten hectares, the museum is home to more than 43,000 artefacts, including the largest collection of road graders in Eastern Europe.

The museum is divided into two main areas: the historic horse postal station and the open-air exhibition area across the Post Road. The foundation of the museum’s exhibition was Estonia’s best-preserved postal station, whose history spans nearly 160 years. It was here that we opened our first permanent exhibition, “The History of Roads,” in 2005, telling the story of road development and modes of travel from ancient times to the present day. The exhibition received Estonia’s highest museum recognition — the Museum Rat Award in 2006.

In 2010, a new era began at the museum with the opening of the open-air exhibition “Road Time” — featuring a historical road environment, a children’s traffic town, and displays of road construction machinery. Today, this area has grown even further. During the summer season, visitors can also explore a smaller machinery hall, an open storage exhibition showcasing outstanding examples of Estonian engineering and offering insight into the development of public transport.

Since the summer of 2011, the new exhibition “Mastering Machines” has been open. In the 1,500 m² exhibition hall, visitors can discover powerful machines that built Estonia’s roads up until 1985. One of the highlights is the legendary Bitvargen — the first self-propelled road grader brought to Estonia from Sweden in 1926.

The second focus of the exhibition explores automobile usage practices from the 1920s to the 2000s — tracing how the car evolved from a luxury item into an everyday necessity. Through three themes — car culture, road machinery, and traffic education — visitors gain a comprehensive overview of how the automotive era has shaped Estonia’s roads and traffic culture.

Vision

As a result of the museum’s work, people’s traffic behaviour becomes safer, and a new generation of road-sector enthusiasts grows up.

Mission

We inspire people to travel safely and to take an interest in the heritage of road history and the development of the field.