Tartu

Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 97,759 (as of 2024). It is 186 kilometres (116 miles) southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast of Riga, Latvia. Tartu lies on the Emajõgi river, which connects the two largest lakes in Estonia, Lake Võrtsjärv and Lake Peipus. From the 13th century until the end of the 19th century, Tartu was known in most of the world by variants of its historical name Dorpat.

Tartu, the largest urban centre of southern Estonia, is often considered the "intellectual capital city" of the country, especially as it is home to the nation's oldest and most renowned university, the University of Tartu (founded in 1632). Tartu also houses the Supreme Court of Estonia, the Ministry of Education and Research, the Estonian National Museum, and the oldest Estonian-language theatre, Vanemuine. It is also the birthplace of the Estonian Song Festivals.

Tartu was designated as the European Capital of Culture in 2024.

It is thought that the name derives from the word for aurochs, tarvas. Since Estonia became an independent country in 1918, the Estonian-language Tartu (Estonian pronunciation: [ˈtɑrtˑu]), alternative South Estonian spelling: Tarto) has been the only name in official use but throughout its history there have also been various names for it in other languages. Most of them derive ultimately from the earliest attested form, the Estonian Tarbatu. In German, Swedish and Polish the town has been known, and up until the 20th century was sometimes referred to, as Dorpat^ⓘ, a variant of Tarbatu. In Russian the city has been known as Юрьев (Yur′yev, after Yuri, the baptismal name of grand prince Yaroslav I the Wise) and as Дерпт (Derpt, from the Low German variant of Dorpat). Similarly the city has been known as Tērbata in Latvian, and Finnish speakers use the toponym Tartto. Tartu lies on the Emajõgi River, whose name literally means 'mother river' in Estonian. In Latvian, the name of Emajõgi river is Mētra. Therefore, Tartu's historical unofficial name in Latvian is Mētraine. Historically, Tartu was the main center for Latvian academic education, which is the reason why the name of the city used to be Latvianized.

Archaeological evidence of the first permanent settlement on the site of modern Tartu dates to as early as the 5th century AD. By the 7th century, local inhabitants had built a wooden fortification on the east side of Toome Hill (Toomemägi). Over the next centuries the settlement grew, and around 9th–10th centuries became an inland trading center.

The first documented records of the area were made by later mediaeval chroniclers who described the events of early-11th-century Kievan Rus'. According to the Primary Chronicle (PVL) and Sofia First Chronicle (SPL), Yaroslav the Wise, Grand Prince of Kiev, invaded the region of Tartu in c. 1030, and after defeating the Chud', built his own fort there, and named it Yuryev. Tartu may have remained under Kievan Rus' control until 1061, when, according to the SPL, the Yuryev fort was burned down by Sosols (probably Oeselians, Sackalians, or another Estonian tribe). Soon afterwards the fort was rebuilt by locals. In the 12th century, local Ungannians on one side and troops from the neighbouring Novgorod Republic on the other side repeatedly raided each other. In those campaigns, the invaders were reportedly able to capture Tartu in 1133 or 1134, and in the winter of 1191–1192, however these temporary captures are not known to have brought any lasting territorial changes.

During the period of Northern Crusades in the beginning of the 13th century the fort of Tarbatu (or Tharbata) was captured by the crusading Teutonic knights — also known as the Brothers of the Sword — and recaptured by Estonians on several occasions. In 1224, after the princes of Novgorod and Pskov had sent additional troops led by prince Vyachko of Kukenois to aid the Estonian defenders of the fort, it was besieged and conquered for one last time by the Teutonic crusaders. Subsequently, known as Dorpat (Latin: Tarbatum), Tartu became a commercial centre of considerable importance during the later Middle Ages and the capital of the semi-independent Bishopric of Dorpat.

In 1262 the army of prince Dmitri of Pereslavl launched an assault on Dorpat, capturing and destroying the town. His troops did not manage to capture the bishop's fortress on Toome Hill. The event was recorded both in subsequent German and Old East Slavic chronicles, which also provided the first record of a settlement of German merchants and artisans which had arisen alongside the bishop's fortress.