Top 10 Cemeteries in Estonia, Estonia

The Defence Forces Cemetery, located in Tallinn in the area between Juurdeveo Street and the Tallinn City Centre Cemetery, is the burial place of members of the armed forces who have fallen in Estonia and where up to 5,000 members of armed forces have been buried during 120 years.In 2007 the monument to liberators of Tallinn, in popular language the Bronze Soldier, was moved from the green area in Tonismae, central Tallinn, to the Defence Forces Cemetery. The memorial structure to those fallen in the Estonian War of Independence established in 1928 and a statue in commemoration of the victims of Manniku explosion are also located here.

Established in 1780 town graveyard together with chapels in classicistic style is under protection as architectural memory. Among the chapels the most beautiful are built in 1848 into main gates of the graveyard rooms with colonnade facade in the shape of little Greek temple. Graveyard itself is like a museum of sculpture and hammered art. Here we can see plenty of crypt graves covered with heavy stone plates and tasteful masterfully fine-tuned classicistic grave monuments that often have the shape of urn or vase all dating into first half of the 19th century.Interesting to know:In the graveyard there are the graves of four outstanding persons.

The German military cemetery is the final resting place of soldiers who served and fought as part of the German forces in World War II. The names, ranks, dates of birth and details of the demise of the soldiers are listed at the cemetery. There is also a memorial to the soldiers and to all victims of war.

During the Second World War, there was a camp for prisoners of war in the territory of the current Priimets Industrial Estate where the former stables of the Estonian Army had been converted into prisons. The Stalag 351 Camp was founded in summer 1941 for captured soldiers fighting in the Red Army and Camp 187 for German prisoners of war was founded instead of it in 1944. Interesting facts:* the cemetery where German prisoners of war are buried was restored at the initiative of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgraberfursorge (People’s Association for Caring for German War Graves); * German prisoners of war built the Valga railway station that was completed in 1949;* the Mourning monument by Anton Starkopf was erected to commemorate Soviet prisoners of war.

The cemetery is as sacred for Kihnu people as the church. You go there quietly and never after the sun has set so you don't disturb the dead. Useful information!Famous Captain Enn Uuetoa or Kihnu Jonn, whose remains were brought from Denmark to Kihnu in 1992, is buried near the cemetery gates. Carpenter Karl Jerkwelt, a man from Saaremaa who worked on Kihnu Jonn's last ship Rock-City, is buried next to him.

The cemetery was established during the Second World War. First German soldiers killed in battles were buried there already in the summer of 1941. In the autumn of 1944 the Soviet occupation army destroyed all gravestones. In 1991-1993 the German War Graves Commission restored the cemetery. It is now a resting place for about 700 soldiers who perished in battles and died in hospitals. A couple of dozens of them are Estonians.

Vormsi Cemetery right next to St Olav’s Church on the island of Vormsi is one of the most unique cemeteries in Estonia. In the older part of the cemetery you will find many limestone and sandstone wheel crosses. More than 330 wheel crosses have survived and there are many crosses of ordinary shapes.Interesting facts:There are two memorial stones in the churchyard – one for the Estonian-Swedish cultural figure Hans Pohl, and the other for the Swedish missionary Osterblom who brought about fundamental changes in the local religious life.Try to find the oldest grave stone in the cemetery originating from 1743. Outside the churchyard you can see one of the few freedom monuments in Estonia which stood in its place through the whole of the Soviet era.

Ala Cemetery is not far from Taagepera and the chapel of the first Estonian squire Mats Eredell is located in its southern end. It is also the resting place of Mats’s wife Kart, son Friedrich Bernhard and another descendant of Mats. Mats Eredell was the owner of the Sonni Farm in Taagepera. One of his descendants, Hans Erdell, bought the Roobe Manor in 1868. It was one of earliest purchases of its kind in the history of Livonia.Interesting facts: Mats Erdell (1792-1847) was the first Estonian squire.