Tartu Old Observatory

3D Model

Financier: Estonian Ministry of Culture Register data: here

The observatory was built at the highest point of Toome Hill, based on the designs by Johann Wilhelm Krause. The building was completed in 1810. It was one of the first observatories in Europe designed specifically with scientific observation in mind. Its East-West facing was inspired by the observatory of Gotha with the same principles used in the construction of the observatory of Göttingen university. It was the first modern observatory in the Russian Empire. Its east and west halls were equipped with wall and roof apertures for observations, and the tower was initially covered by a dome. When the world’s largest telescope at the time, the Fraunhofer refractor, was brought to the observatory in 1824, the dome was replaced with a tower that had a manually rotatable top.

3D-object created by Archaeovision OÜ, Geodeesia24 OÜ and dataCap OÜ.