FOR VISITOR/
VISIT TARTU

The City of Good Thoughts

This leafy town of students, intellectuals and creatives brings back sweet, youthful memories to many who have once toured the city on a bicycle during their student days.

Upon your arrival in Tartu, you are soon welcomed by a statue of kissing students standing in a large Classicist town square nearby museums, cafes and a large park formed around a hill.

Tartu is very compact, with most sights, restaurants and nightlife nestled across a couple of parallel streets. Being the second largest town in Estonia and a hot bed for creative and scientific culture, there is always something on from theatre performances to concerts and festivals.

Tartu is very compact, with most sights, restaurants and nightlife nestled across a couple of parallel streets.

Being the second largest town in Estonia and a hot bed for creative and scientific culture, there is always something on from theatre performances to concerts and festivals.

Tartu is also on the 2020 Sustainable Top 100 destinations list. The competition for international sustainable travel destination success stories is organised by Green Destinations to recognise places that put effort into making the experience of visitors more sustainable and value-based. The success stories of Tartu are its bicycle-sharing service and CNG-powered buses. As a result, there is less car traffic and traffic noise in the city, which also leads to better air quality. Tartu’s goal is to reduce the number of trips made by cars to 25% of all traffic by 2040.

TARTU 2024

"ARTS OF SURVIVAL" is the leading theme of our Tartu 2024 artistic concept.

"Arts of Survival" is meant to express the power of the arts in affecting Europe’s future in three larger areas of life: environmentally friendly culture with a focus on real human communication, strong communities and essential skills for living and, indeed, survival in the coming years.

With messages and actions that value the individual and with the help of our Southern Estonian partners, even a city the size of Tartu can stand out in 21st century Europe. The three main themes where the Arts of Survival come to life are as follows: "Tartu with Earth: Ecology Before Economy", "Tartu with Humanity: Forward to the Roots", "Tartu with Europe: Greater Smaller Cities". Each of these programme lines consists a number of transversal, transnational and transgenerational projects which open up the "Arts of Survival" values.