Mõisaküla Linn

Mõisaküla Linn / Esittely

MÕISAKÜLA

The smallest town!
Clean unspoiled nature!
Beautiful homes!
Four churches!
History preserved in the museum!
A few steps to the border!

The town of Mõisaküla was established on the bog that belonged to the Abja manor lord. Today, a beautiful and green town with 32 streets and lovely gardens, which is the smallest in Estonia with an area of only 2.3 square kilometers, has replaced the bog.

Our real treasure is clean nature. The town is surrounded by forests, bogs, and moors. The center of the town has a lot of green space. A joy to see are the Children’s Park with village swing and a ball game court, the Firemen’s Park, and the Alumni Park.

In 1894, construction was started on the Pärnu-Valga narrow-gauge railway. This established the foundation for the future development of Mõisaküla, or Moisekülli as it was called at that time.

The year 1895, when the railway station was completed, is considered the Mõisaküla’s date of birth. The first train passed through the Mõisaküla station on October 19, 1896 (according to the Old Style Calendar).

In 1900, the Railway Factory, where railway engines were repaired, started operations. The first workers’ barracks were built. Some of the unique architectural buildings have survived until today. The trains no longer run. A set of rails and the railway station, which was built after 1944, commemorates the railway.

Already during the first decade, Mõisaküla developed into a promising and vigorously developing settlement, the population of which was relatively young and multi-ethnic. Besides Estonians, it included Russians, Latvians, Poles, and Germans.

In 1920, Mõisaküla became a borough and it was granted town rights in 1938. Before World War II, Mõisaküla was one of the more prosperous small towns in Estonia. During the mayhem of war, the majority of the town center and its industry were destroyed.

The jewel of the town center is the schoolhouse. In 1905, Jaan Sihver opened a 2-grade private Estonian-language school, the location of which is designated by a memorial stone. In 1906, the one-grade private elementary school of the PEKS’s Mõisaküla department was opened, which developed into the current Mõisaküla Secondary School.

The first library that started operating in 1905 was the Kiikre Kuuse Lending Library and five years later the public library was issued a foundation permit. The library and the doors of the Public Internet Access Point are open to visitors six days a week.

A red brick building towers on Vabrik Street, where the flax-spinning factory started operating in 1909, and which provided work for the women of Mõisaküla until 1996. The kindergarten, which is one of the town’s jewels, is located near the flax factory,

Nearby is the Summer Garden, where open-air events take place. Cultural activities and entertainment are offered by the community cultural center, and together with the nursing home located in the vicinity, they constitute a whole with their well-maintained buildings and surroundings.

In the town center, the town government and museum building catches one’s eye. It is one of the few buildings along a former Kesk (Center) Street to survive the war. The museum, which was established in 1970 and has almost a thousand items on display, provides a thorough overview of the small town’s history. The medals and awards of the Olympian Arnold Luhaäär, who was raised in Mõisaküla, have a place of importance. The tradition of weightlifting is still honored in the town today.

Perhaps the most important town’s sights are the four churches. The town, which has a thousand residents, has three active congregations: the New Apostolic, Lutheran, and Pentecostal congregations.

Starting in 1929, a great campaign for the construction of a church was started by Mõisaküla’s active citizens. In 1934, a wooden church with unique architecture designed by Alar Kotli was built for the Lutherans. The church of the Mõisaküla Estonian Lutheran Congregation of Mary Magdalene survived the war, but burned to the ground in 1983. The restoration of the church was started in 1996. Again supported by donations, the roof of the church has been raised, and a new vestry constructed.

Currently, the Apostolic Orthodox Church, which was also completed in 1934, stands empty, and a congregation is not active. The New Apostolic Church, which was consecrated in 1998, is one of the most beautiful buildings and has also become well known as a concert hall. A Pentecostal congregation, who has done valuable work with young people and has a goal of performing charity work, has found a home in a former children’s nursery.

Continuing a few hundred meters south along the highway from the Lutheran Church and you will come to the Estonian-Latvian border.

The Mõisaküla border checkpoint is the northernmost point in Latvia.