01 July 2013

#258 Põlva, Estonia


The Estonian Road Museum (TERM) is the centre of displaying the collection and research of the data on history of Estonian roads with the view of mediating its scientific, educational and entertaining points to the public.

A road is so characteristic of a civilization that usually we do not think about it more than about the air we breathe. A road - a construction taken for granted - has actually played a great part in the development of our modern world. A road takes us somewhere, connects our starting points and destinations. If we value cultural memory, roads take us back in time and offer us stories from time immemorial. And even if we seem to be moving on, referring to the past has an ability to help us to be in the present as well as in the future.

The idea to collect data about the history of Estonian roads is at least a quarter of a century old. Through several decades the initiator and carrier of the idea to establish a road museum was a legendary road worker Aadu Lass. However, the Road Museum was not created until the end of the 1990s. When choosing the location, the Varbuse postal station with its dignified and long history, located on the Tartu-Võru postal road, was found to be suitable due to several reasons. The Varbuse postal station, established in 1863, was active until the stage-coach postal services vanished completely in Estonia during 1920s and 1930s. In 1935 it was given to the disposal of the Varbuse road master. Until 1997, the centre of the road master's area was located in the buildings of the postal station.

The Varbuse postal station, protected as an architectural monument, consists of five ground stone and red brick buildings. They are the main building of the postal station and a coach house (renovated in 2001), a stable (renovated in 2004), a blacksmith's shop, a sauna, a laundry room and a dwelling for postmen and saddlers (renovated in 2006). The buildings are connected by a wall made of granit, forming a spacious rectangular inner court. To exhibit the museum's road construction machines, a 1000m² exhibition hall was built in 2003 near the postal station complex.



Date of Issue: May 2, 2013 | Europa 2013 "The Postman Van"
The stamp depicts a horse drawn carriage formerly used for mail dispatch.
Posteurop.org

Aitäh, Katrina !

Sent on: June 25, 2013
Received on: June 27, 2013

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