Closed since February, Saturday's reopening marks the end of months of renovation — including the replacement of its 24-year-old permanent exhibition.

The museum now offers a multi-floor display letting visitors explore both the Blackheads' treasures and Tallinn's history through various trades and professions.

"Through its most valuable artifacts, the museum shows what social life in Tallinn was like," said museum director Heli Nurger. Some of the city's rarest historical pieces — the art treasures of the Brotherhood of Blackheads — haven't been on display at this scale for years.

The second floor features the exhibition "The Wealthy and Handsome: The Brotherhood of Blackheads in Tallinn." Museum research director Pia Ehasalu is chief curator, joined by University of Tartu art history professor Anu Mänd and senior curator Toomas Abiline.

The fourth-floor permanent exhibition, "Lyndanise. Reval. Tallinn: City Life Through the Centuries" explores Tallinn legends and city life across time, through education, church life, industry and trade. The updated exhibition even includes plans that were never ultimately realized.

Tallinn's story comes alive through figures like Victor of Marseilles, once the city's patron saint, and a Kalamaja boy who later becomes the iconic city guard Old Thomas.

Visitors can also see key treasures: Old Thomas' own original gilded city key, a chest holding the city council's most important documents and the Dannebrog flag gifted by Queen Margrethe II. Maris Rosenthal, the museum's collections manager, led the project.

Tallinn funded the museum's €900,000 exhibitions, which will remain on view until the new Open Collections building opens in 2030.

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