Points of interest

The history of the oldest lighthouse not only in Estonia, but anywhere in the Baltic States and indeed on the Baltic Sea, stretches back 500 years, when landmarks were needed to guide ships in the Hanseatic League. The most important east-west trade route in Northern Europe passed the island of Hiiumaa and merchants complained of ships being lost on the Baltic Sea.  This led to the construction of the lighthouse at Kõpu to warn ships of the low waters off the island.
The lighthouse was built at 67 metres above sea level at the highest point on Hiiumaa. It stands 36 metres above the ground, meaning its light shines out at 102.6 metres above sea level. No other lighthouses by the Baltic Sea are as high.

The Ristna Lighthouse is located on the Ristna northern cape, which is relatively close to the Kõpu Lighthouse, which is built on a rise in the middle of bogs and is therefore often concealed by fog. This was also the reason that the Ristna Lighthouse was built. It was ordered from France in 1873 and started working in 1874. A 7-pood copper bell was also installed in the lighthouse.

Tahkuna Lighthouse, situated on the north end of Hiiumaa, is a cast-iron lighthouse which’s construction started in 1873. Assembled of cast iron parts, utilising the so-called Gordon system, it was created with prefabricated details. The details were easy to transport, making this tall tower rather easy to build.

Did you know…?
• The lighthouse was bought from the world exhibition of Paris in 1871 by Czarist Russia
• It is Estonia’s tallest lighthouse – 42.7 m above sea level

The baroque Suuremõisa castle was constructed between 1755 and 1760, commissioned by Countess Ebba-Margaretha von Stenbock (née De la Gardie).

Count Jacob Pontus Stenbock, who inherited the estate from his mother the Countess, exchanged it in 1796 for Uuemõisa manor due to his debts. The new owner of Suuremõisa was Otto Reinhold Ludvig von Ungern-Sternberg.
The castle has a museum room introducing the history of the manor, as well as a souvenir and book counter. In addition to beautiful interior and history, the surrounding area of the manor features a flower garden created by Hiiumaa Vocational School, an English park, and various ancillary buildings of the manor complex.

At first, you don’t see more than just a large pile of rocks. Yet it is clear that the strength of ordinary hands would not be sufficient to achieve this. It is often thought this an ancient sacred place, a place where fundamental agreements were concluded, and consultation held with the gods. It is also thought that the pile of rocks marks the grave of Nordic King Ingvar. Ingvar was killed in Estonia around 600 and buried in a place marked with the name Kivi (Rock). There are also stories that this is the place where seaman brought the gods rocks for luck before embarking on voyage. It is also said that manor lord O. R. L. von Ungern-Sternberg was planning to build an Egyptian-style pyramid.

The 35-metre long and 8-metre wide three-masted motor sailboat Ernst Jaakson (Alar) is the largest old boat to survive in Estonia. The boat was built in 1937–1939 in the Village of Õngu on Hiiumaa Island. Most of its life was spent abroad. Now after 50 years, this giant has been brought back for restoration to the Sõru Harbour in Hiiumaa, which is the only wooden boat restoration centre in Estonia.

The Pühalepa Church is Hiiumaa’s oldest stone church. In 1255, the German Order started the construction of a stone fortress-church. Initially lacking a steeple, the arched stone church was completed in the 14th century; construction of the steeple started in 1770. After it renovation in the 19th century, Crosses of Malta were painted on the walls that are primarily associated with the membership of the Ungern-Sternberg family members in this Order.

Interesting fact:
One of the inauguration crosses has survived on the wall of the choir room.An unusual stone pulpit was given to the Pühalepa Church by the Hiiesaare manor lords, the Gentschiens in 1636.The burial chapel of the von Stenbock family is in the churchyard.

Reigi did not become an independent parish until 1627. Baron O. R. L. von Ungern-Sternberg had its stone church – which is dedicated to Jesus – built in memory of his son Gustav, who had taken his own life. The greatest treasure of Reigi church is its art collection.
Did you know…?
The name ‘Reigi’ comes from Swedish and means ‘smoke’ or ‘signal fire’Pihla Tavern, known from Gustav Ernesaks’s opera ‘Stormy Beach’, was located across the street from the churchInspired by the words of Runeberg, Pastor G. F. Rinne wrote a song of praise to Hiiumaa to a tune by Pacius

The Estonian Orthodox Hiiumaa Church of the Birth of the Mother of our Lord in the Village of Kuriste was completed in 1873. The historicist-style stone church was established on the island in the course of the conversion movement. The stones were brought from Riga. Icons and liturgical textiles from the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries are on display. The former priest’s house is located next to the stone church. The church is the only orthodox church to have survived in Hiiumaa, where services also take place.

Construction of this stone church started in 1866, after the Sõru wooden church near the Emmaste Manor became usable. The land for the new church was presented to the congregation by the lady of the manor, Countess Brevern de la Gardie.
The nave resembles a church hall, despite the two rows of thin support columns. The choir room is separated from the nave by a high, but relatively narrow, triumphal arch. The Emmaste Church has a unique altar painting entitled The Resurrection. The author of the painting, as confirmed by the signature at the bottom of the canvas, is Tõnis Grenzstein, the distinguished representative of the Dusseldorf School in Estonia. The altar painting was completed in 1900.

During the period from 1889 to 1891, an apostolic orthodox church and a schoolhouse for the children of the congregation were built in Puski. The peculiar choice of location has been explained by the fact that the first Russian priests of Puski did not know the local conditions. The land was owned by Ungern-Sternberg who, as an opponent of the attack of orthodox faith and religious conversion in general, donated a plot in the middle of nowhere. Nowadays there are ruins of the church and schoolhouse in Puski and a quiet village graveyard sleeping with the sough of wind in the pine grove.

The ruins are located in the heart of the locality Käina. The church was built at the turn of the 15th – 16th century. The Gothic church in Käina seated 600 persons and was the biggest church on Hiiumaa. The church was destroyed in 1941. Several tombstones as well as the sun cross above the entrance are protected as art monuments. A fire in the church destroyed many art treasures: the altar of the Virgin Mary, Saint Nicholas and Saint Antonio, the organ built by the father of the Estonian composer Rudolf Tobias etc. The church also served as the parish centre for many centuries. The ruins have now been conserved, the restoration of the church is planned. The trees that surround the church form a nice park, as the locals call it.

The first chapel was erected in thanks to God by Danish seamen, who had escaped from a shipwreck on the Mänspäe coast. The chapel was built from the pieces of the shipwreck and is said to have had room for only 10 people. In the first half of the 19th century, one of the first “reading schools” in the area operated in the chapel. The present Mänspäe Chapel – the third at this location – was built by the Emmaste Manor lord, Baron Hoiningen-Huene based on a plan designed in 1908. The builder was master builder Toomas Koolmeister. In 2006, the chapel received a new coat of paint, which is exactly the same shade of yellow as when the chapel was built a century ago.

Bronze bell – a ship’s or soul bell that starts ringing by itself in a strong wind. With the movement of its cross-shaped pendulum in a storm, it seems a bring a message from the sea – a bell tower in a way … symbolically. The incline of the monument has a visual and emotional impact and should also call to mind the last moments of the ship. Tender details are also added to the bronze bell – four child faces on each of the main points of the compass.

Only a wool warehouse built in 1849 remains of the barns that used to form the Kärdla Marina building complex; it was used by the Kärdla broadcloth factory (in business between 1830–1941) to store large balls of wool that were shipped here from Australia and New Zealand. The building is made of limestone and covered in lime plaster.
The second warehouse in the marina has two floors and is also made of limestone and covered in lime plaster; this used to be the office of the marina. The building, formerly a barn, was constructed in 1849 and the locals call it Viinaladu (‘vodka storage’).
The public is not admitted inside the buildings.

Scrolls mention Suursadam harbor for the first time as Sääre Sadam (Serle Ham) in 1593. In 1680 Dutchman Erasmus Jacobson built a bigger ship-building concern in Suursadama harbor. There were lime-furnaces nearby. The production of these lime-furnaces was sent to many ports of the Baltic Sea.
In 1848 a 358-ton bark (ship), “Hioma”, was built in this harbor. This sailboat was the biggest boat in Estonia in the 19th century. “Hioma” was the first sailboat that sailed over the equator in 1854 and around Kap Hoorn into the Pacific Ocean.
A big storehouse has been taken under protection as an architectural monument.

Three small rivers flow through Kärdla: Nuutri River, Liivaoja and Kammioja, as well as innumerable ditches, streams and streamlets. These waterways are bridged with small bridges called trumms (“drums”). The word trumm is borrowed from the Estonian Swedish language (trumma) and it was used everywhere in Hiiumaa for a bridge that could be crossed with a carriage. Today, the word trumm is used for bridges only in Kärdla and all the trumms have names.

Kärdla Fire and Rescue Society was established in the middle of the 19th century by the management of the broadcloth factory and it was based at the factory. The construction of the fire station began in 1928. The poor economic situation of the beginning of 1930s dragged out the construction and the fire station was finished (with weatherboarding and exterior paint) only in 1937. The newly completed wooden building had 3 rooms and a tower for drying hoses. By today, a mansard has been added.
Since the beginning of the 21st century, the fire station is home to the Tourist Information Centre.

The construction of the Kärdla power plant began in 1954. It is a fully functional diesel power plant with all the necessary machinery. All the equipment is in working order.
The chimney of the power plant was built in years 1953-1954 with special chimney bricks. The chimney is 40 meters high.
Kärdla power plant was shut down in 1977. Its 8 diesel engines were conserved and Hiiumaa was integrated into the single Estonian energy system with a cable brought along the seabed from Saaremaa.
The power plant complex located on the beautiful Nuutri river forms a unique ensemble which can be admired from the outside by all visitors.

In 1830, barons Ungern-Sternberg established a broadcloth factory in Kärdla. Today’s factory square formed the core of the factory complex. The four-storey broadcloth factory was located on the south side of the courtyard of the factory on the shores of the Nuutri river. On the western side of the courtyard, there was the residence of the factory director – known as the Long House, today home to the Hiiumaa Museum is located.
On the northern side of the square, 4 single-storey wooden houses or shop master’s houses for senior officials of the factory were erected and have preserved well until the present time. The houses had large gardens.
Until the end of 1970s, a house with pillars or the Summer Manor was located on the eastern side of the square. In the early years of the broadcloth factory, it was the residence of the factory director.

According to legend, there was a pile in Tubala village which used to keep Hiiumaa fixed to the sea bottom so that it does not drift away.
A pile was dug into the ground on 28 July 2003 to tell the ancient legend, but is also meant to support the entire culture of Hiiumaa – for at least as long as the Kõpu Lighthouse has stood on Hiiumaa. The Kõpu Lighthouse Foundation was established on 24 July 1999 to support the cultural life of Hiiumaa. The Board of the foundation decided that all donors would receive a nail bearing the donor’s name.
Traditionally, the nails awarded to new donors are hit in the Tubala pile every year on 28 July.

The Hill of Crosses is an area on the highway covered with crosses, the development of which is related to the expulsion of the Reigi Swedes in August 1781. Tsarina Catherin II signed an order that allowed the Swedes to resettle in South-Ukraine. On August 20, 1781, the emigrants gathered on the Hill of Crosses and conducted their last church service. Thus they said farewell to the place that been home to the Swedes for at least 400 to 500 years. Initially, the people who were leaving the island came to the Hill of Crosses to make their crosses. Today, things are backwards – crosses are made by those who come to the island for the first time.

Kassari chapel is a building with romantic appearance that is the only functioning thatched-roof stone church in Estonia. Reputedly it dates back to 18th century because on the inner wall of the chapel there is a year 1801 that is associated with big repair.
In the graveyard there are the graves of many famous people – the ancestors of the poets M. Under and D. Vaarandi; the actor Olev Eskola; familiar from V.Panso book “The Funny Person” Lepa Anna. Familiar from art, literature and folk tales the name of Villem Tamm, whom J. Köler used as a model for Christ when painting his work “Come to me” in Kaarli church.

A post mill with a classic wooden structure. The base of the mill is made of rocks without binder. The mill has a board roof covering and its body has horizontal boarding. It was built in the second half of the 19th century. Two post mills have been preserved in Harju village (Nõmme and Rätsepa).

The limestone Partsi windmill, built in the 19th century, is a smock mill with a frame in the shape of a truncated cone. The roof of the mill used to resemble an upside down boat.
A pearling machine, millstones and some of the transmission system of the mill still survive.
The mill has been restored and the rooms have been refurbished for community activities; nevertheless, all those who are interested can still admire the exterior of the mill.

The church of Kärdla was dedicated to John the Baptist and was constructed in 1863. It is the third church in Kärdla.
The barons of Emmaste, Suuremõisa and Putkaste were the initiators of the idea to build the church and gave the baron of Kärdla 2000 roubles for that purpose. The workers of the cloth factory made voluntary donations and a part of the money for the construction was taken from the workers wages. It is an architecturally harmonic, typical hall church with an “open” bell tower crowning the western facade (unique in Estonia). The architecture of the stylish and beautiful church in Kärdla is simple and ascetic. This architectural monument is one of the most distinguished working-class churches.

There is a monument called Kivi-Jüri in Hiiumaa that looks like a soldier’s head on a granite base, located at the crossroads of Heltermaa, Käina and Kõrgessaare highways coming from Kärdla. The authors of the monument are sculptor Endel Taniloo and architect Ülo Sirp. Kivi-Jüri is the largest granite bust and it weighs altogether 46 tons, 36 tons of which is the base and 10 tons the head leaning on the base. The monument was opened in September 1966 to commemorate all soldiers.