Street art in Tartu, Estonia

Chosen to be a European Capital of Culture in 2024, the university city of Tartu in eastern Estonia will no doubt garner some attention this year. Little over two hours by car or train from the capital, Tallinn, its modern street art make a pleasing contrast to the many historic buildings in the town.

Street art originated in the United States in the 1970s but didn’t reach Estonia until after the Soviets left the country in 1991 and when western magazines featuring street art started becoming accessible.

Much of the street art is centred around Supilinn, or Soup Town, a 19th-century ex-slum neighbourhood of wooden houses. It is one of the oldest slums in Europe that still remains. When the Soviets bombed the city it survived. They ignored it as it was deemed worthless.

Originally factory workers lived here, and in the 1990s artists started moving in. Nowadays it is rapidly gentrifying.

Many street art spots here are legal and decided in advance, with street artists from around the world invited for ‘spraycations’.

The artist @5ma use of spray paint on this cow painting is impressive

This is called ‘yarnbombing’ - colourful crochet wrapped around trees, lamp posts and elsewhere

Mr_Sce from the UK paints animals and birds, and here he painted a meerkat

Local artist Kairo created works featuring flowers, insects and fish. She uses acrylics rather than spray paints, which takes much longer

Some of the wooden houses have immaculate, often newly-painted doors while the rest of the building is shabby. This is because the council gave money to renovate the doors but not the whole building

Marjais a particular leafy, pretty and tranquil street in Soup Town.

Soup Town has works by Edward von Lungus, Estonia’s best known street artist. He’s known as ‘the Estonian Banksy’

If you think street artists are unemployed and idle, indiscriminately spraying grafitti, think again. Von Lungus was paid €200,000 for one work alone. Here’s another by him

Along a fence on Herne Street there are portraits of all the cats in the neighbourhood in 2020

A wonderfully colourful house on Kroonuia Street

This nearby bridge has more street art, which is all permitted by the city.

Under the bridge is a depiction of mushrooms and strawberries - Estonians love to forage

Another is by an Eastern Estonian artist called Gutface

Soup Town’s Käkk & Mülä is an unpretentious little cafe offering pastries and a daily vegan soup. In the evening it becomes a bar, sometimes with live music (facebook.com/kohvik.k2kk/)

PseudoTours hold walking tours featuring Tartu street art and Soup Town: tours cost €15; pseudotours.com/en/

More by me on Tartu: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/this-baltic-city-will-be-huge-next-year-heres-what-to-see-and-do-jxn06rj27