The Estonian Open Air Museum is a life-sized reconstruction of an 18th-century rural/fishing village, which comes complete with church, inn, schoolhouse, several mills, a fire station, twelve farmyards and net sheds. The site spans 72 hectares of land and contains about 80 separate buildings and is located 8 km to the west of Tallinn city center at Rocca al Mare. Established in 1957, the museum showcases 68 farmhouses assembled into twelve farmyards from North, South and West Estonia.
Along with the farmyards, old public buildings are arranged singularly and in groups in a way that represents an overview of Estonian vernacular architecture of the past two centuries.
The plans for founding the museum were first discussed in 1913, when Estonian literati, inspired by Scandinavian open-air museums, wanted to establish such a museum in Estonia.