Have you heard about Lahemaa National Park? It was established already in 1971, during the Soviet occupation, and was the oldest national park in the whole Soviet Union. It covers more than 700 km2 and has a versatile nature – coastline, bogs and forests, beautiful manor houses and many more things to look at.
In Eesti.life, it was decided that Lahemaa would be a perfect location for our first community event. On a rainy Sunday, a group of people started their trip to Lahemaa. First we headed towards Kuusalu, made a brief stop at Kiiu manor and the nearby 16th century residential tower which is the smallest medieval defensive building in the Baltic states.
Photo: Lea Kreinin
Photo: Lea Kreinin
The next stop was Kolga manor which amazed us with its grandeur. Once it was the biggest manor in nowadays Estonia, it belonged to famous De la Gardie and Stenbock families. Earlier, in the 13th century it was a property of the Cistercian monastery. The classical style manor house is under reconstruction now.
Majakivi nature trail took us through forest and marshland. We had a lovely walk and even managed to find some cranberries and mushrooms.
Photo: Lea Kreinin
Photo: Lea Kreinin
Climbing to the top of a huge Majakivi was a bit of challenge. After all, it is the third biggest boulder in Estonia – huge chunks of stone were brought here by ice in the ice age.
Photo: Lea Kreinin
At Viinistu, mr Jaan Manitski who is a well-known former politician, businessman and art collector, was guiding us in his art museum and surroundings. He told us stories about his own life – born in Viinistu, he was a small baby while leaving Estonia during the second world war.
Jaan Manitski came back to Estonia in the 1990s and started to develop his home village. Hotel, restaurant, marina and art museum replaced the soviet-time fish factory. His art museum has an amazing collection of Estonian art. Definitely worth visiting!
Photo: Lea Kreinin
Photo: Lea Kreinin
What do the participants think?
Photo: Lea Kreinin
I must confess that the visit to Lahemaa National park and other interesting sites was one of the best times I've had in Estonia. One attraction for me in coming to Estonia was the saying that "50% of Estonia is covered with forests" and the ability to see both the forest and the shores during this visit was a very wowing event for me. The stories narrated by our guide and the owner of Viinistu kunstimuuseum helped me to connect to the history of the Estonian people and the struggle for a better life and freedom. I'm happy to be in Estonia at this time of my life and the lessons learnt, stories heard and seeing the success people have received here gives me hope that even in countries where people are still being subjected to some sort of oppression, freedom will arrive one day.
Chizuruoke from Nigeria
Estonian culture is very interesting. As you know, customs and cultures are different at each country, most of them came from deep concept of local need, worries, interest, religion and were based on climate and geopolitics. On the other hand, Estonians have very interesting and wise customs which I like to know more about. For example: taking care about nature, keeping food for long term usage, trying to keep their culture during very long and tough times which contain many wars and other countries’ power over Estonia,
Mehdi from Iran
The most interesting thing was the art museum in Viinistu and its owner’s Jaan Manitski’s stories and life experience. He is a very interesting man – he left Estonia in 1944 as a small child, with his family, and came back after Estonia regained independence. He is telling extraordinary stories! Last year when we visited
Arvo Pärt
Arvo Pärt is an Estonian composer of contemporary classical music.
Centre in Laulasmaa we met
Arvo Pärt
Arvo Pärt is an Estonian composer of contemporary classical music.
himself! We don’t have mountains in Kazakhstan, it is mostly stepp. Kazakhstan is very big – Estonia is the size of the smallest region of it. The weather is also very different, as also some celebrations. We like the light summer nights in Estonia.
Yerlan and Amal from Kazakhstan
Nepal is the opposite of Estonia, so different! We are glad that we have the possibility to explore Estonia now. We would like to have more friends, meet more people. We appreciate that Estonians value the nature and all small things. That’s what we can learn from them. We would like to have an opportunity to get to know your culture
Anita and Weenit from Nepal
The Estonian nature is amazing. I am from Israel, and in Israel, there are no natural forests: we have only few forests located in the north of Israel and they have all grown up artificially. In Israel, we have a special holiday called Tu BiShvat: the main idea of this holiday is to plant trees with your family and friends to create these artificial forests.
Kate from Israel
Photo: Lea Kreinin
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