Former Psychiatric Hospital: Staadioni 83 residential building

The Tartu Psychiatric Hospital was opened at the end of present-day Staadioni Street in 1878. Its founder and first director was Eduard-Georg von Wahl, an alumnus and later professor of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Tartu.

This autumn, the reconstruction works on the building will be completed. The former hospital building will become the Von Wahl Residence, soon offering modern living conditions across 37 apartments.

Fully completed in 1880, this log-built psychiatric clinic has been considered the largest wooden building in Estonia. It was the first psychiatric clinic established at a Russian university and only the second clinic of its kind in the entire Russian Empire.
The building is a characteristic example of historicist architecture from the second half of the 19th century, making it a rare specimen as a wooden structure purpose-built for a hospital.

Originally, the building housed living quarters for a professor, an assistant, a head nurse, two ward nurses, and four orderlies. The wings were designed for men’s and women’s wards, and the hospital was intended to accommodate 30 male and 30 female patients.
The famous Estonian poet Juhan Liiv was also among those treated at the Staadioni 83 building.

photo: Von Wahli Residents render