Raadi Manor

Raadi Manor
Raadi Manor in 1927
General information
Address	Raadi Manor Park
Town or city	Tartu
Country	Estonia
Coordinates	58°22′35.75″N 26°42′41.09″E / 58.3765972°N 26.7114139°E / 58.3765972; 26.7114139Coordinates: 58°22′35.75″N 26°42′41.09″E / 58.3765972°N 26.7114139°E / 58.3765972; 26.7114139
Completed	1783
Client	Liphart family
Owner	Estonian National Museum

Raadi Manor (German: Raadi Ratshof) was in the area known as Raadi-Kruusamäe, on the outskirts of Tartu in Estonia. The manor and Raadi Manor Park were the home to the Liphart noble family who were significant art collectors. The family moved away and the buildings housed the Estonian National Museum until the manor was destroyed during the Second World War. Part of the grounds became Raadi Airfield which was used as a secret Soviet bomber base for fifty years. Today the park is open, some buildings are in use by the museum and plans are underway to create a new museum building here.

Plans of Raadi Manor Park date back to at least the middle of the 18th century. The grounds were designed by the German landscape architect Peter Joseph Lenné. The manor itself was founded in 1783. The gardens were admired by Maria Fjodorovna who was the second wife of Paul I of Russia.

The golden age of Raadi was when the Liphart family were here. They were a noble family who took an interest in the local intelligentsia and particularly in Art.Karl Eduard von Liphart created a large collection of drawings and graphic art which is still owned by the Estonian National Museum. His son Ernst Friedrich von Liphart moved away from Raadi with his father in 1860 They both lived in Florence from 1862. Father and son were estranged in 1873 and Ernst later moved to Russia where he continued to paint and mix with the Russian nobility.

Ernst's father died in Florence in 1904. After his death his art collection was moved back to Estonia where it was combined with his family's collection at Raadi Manor.

The manor was subject to unsympathetic building at the turn of the 20th century. The Liphart family moved away during World War I and the Russian Revolution heralded the start of sales of the more valuable part of the art collection in Copenhagen in 1920.