Tommy Hill Garden was a gift from Emperor Paul I to the University of Tartu after the townspeople used it to graze cattle. For hundreds of years, it was the focal point for the locals and later became the site of the episcopal castle that formed the heart of Tartu in the Middle Ages. In the early decades of the nineteenth century, it was converted into a public park at the initiative of the university's farm committee, and with tree alleys, roads, bridge valleys, anatomical theatre, observatory and clinic, it formed an intellectual focal point in Tartu.