Toome Hill Park (Toomemagi)

About

Toomemägi or Toome Hill was a gift from Emperor Paul I to the University of Tartu – having previously been used by townsfolk to graze cattle. For hundreds of years it had been the centre point of the local population, later becoming the site of a castle which made it the heart of medieval Tartu. In the early decades of the 19th century it was turned into a park on the initiative of the university's plantation committee, with alleys of trees, paved roads and bridged gulleys. Along with the library, anatomicum, observatory and clinic it formed the intellectual focal point of Tartu.