Fronted by six Doric columns, the impressive main building of Tartu University was built between 1803 and 1809. The university itself was founded in 1632 by the Swedish king Gustaf II Adolf (Gustavus Adolphus) to train Lutheran clergy and government officials. Modelled on Uppsala University in Sweden, its principal campus and the site of its historic buildings lies behind this neoclassical pile, among the trees and winding paths of lovely Toomemägi.
The university closed in 1710 during the Great Northern War but reopened in 1802, later becoming one of the Russian empire’s foremost centres of learning. Its early emphasis on science is evidenced by the great scholars who worked here in the 19th century, including physical chemistry pioneer and Nobel prize winner for chemistry, Wilhelm Ostwald; physicist Heinrich Lenz; pioneering astronomer Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve; and the founder of embryology, natural scientist Karl Ernst von Baer.