Presidential Palace

The house by Kadriorg Garden serves as the working part of the Presidential Palace. A broad grand staircase leads to offices and halls where ministerial reports and townspeople's petitions were brought, while staff sorted through hundreds of letters. The old palace across the garden remained the residential part of the Palace. The north wing is assigned to the official apartment of the head of state, while the Office of the President of the Republic works in the other rooms.

At the beginning of nineteen thirty-nine, Konstantin Päts, Estonia's first president, crossed the garden between the two palaces each morning. He lived in the old Kadriorg Palace and came here to work. The government built this house after the presidential office was introduced and placed it in line with the former residence. Architect Alar Kotli was tasked with fitting the new working building into the Baroque ensemble.

Ministers climbed the grand staircase with reports, citizens brought petitions, and Office of the President of the Republic staff sorted through hundreds of letters. On Mondays, Päts chaired government meetings in the hall next to his office. In the evening, he took his papers and returned home through the garden. The six-year presidential term had only just begun, but the building seemed designed for an established order to last a long time.

In the summer of nineteen forty, Estonia's system of government changed. The candidates proposed by Päts were not accepted. Johannes Vares—a doctor from Pärnu and a poet who had never governed a country before—agreed to head the new cabinet. On June twenty-sixth, the president was still receiving the new minister of the interior and other officials here. A month later, Päts left office, and he and his family were taken away from Estonia. He did not return and died in nineteen fifty-six.

Vares took the position of chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic. Päts's very working building was assigned to his institution; Vares was also given an official apartment here. In November nineteen forty-six, he was found dead in the bathroom of that apartment, with a pistol lying beside him. It is generally believed that Vares shot himself, although the exact circumstances of his death remained unclear.

Since nineteen ninety-two, the office and the Office of the President of the Republic of Estonia have once again been located in the building, with an official apartment in the north wing. Therefore, the current Presidential Palace occupies the former administrative building. The first president lived on the other side of the garden and came here to work.