Hiiumaa ( ,
Names
Administratively Hiiumaa is the "main island" of the
Hiiu County, called Hiiumaa or Hiiu maakond in Estonian. The
Swedish language name of the island is Dagö ('Day' island), Dagden in
German language, and Dagø in
Danish language. In modern
Finnish language, it is called Hiidenmaa, literally '
Hiisi's Land'. In
Old Gutnish, it was Dagaiþ ('day isthmus'), from which the local North Germanic name Daë is derived.
History
Prehistory
Hiiumaa emerged from the Baltic Sea 8500 years ago due to isostatic uplift after the retreat of the
ice cap.
settlements are found on the island's Kõpu Peninsula from about 5500 BC.
These settlements seem to be related mostly to
seal hunting and extend into the earliest
Neolithic. As Hiiumaa is constantly uplifting the local
sea level was 20 m higher than today at this time. For this reason these settlements are located far from the modern coastline. The pottery found at these sites is of the Narva Type and is similar to that found on Saaremaa and the Estonian mainland.
A series of Cist graves are also present on the island from the Bronze Age through to the Iron Age.
Crusades
The first documented record of the island of
Dageida was made by contemporary chroniclers in 1228, when Hiiumaa and the rest of Estonia were conquered by
Livonian Crusade. In 1254, Hiiumaa was divided between the Bishopric of Ösel-Wiek and the
Livonian Order of the
Teutonic Order, acting partly on behalf of the
Hanseatic League.
Swedish and Russian era
The island was part of
Sweden (
Swedish Estonia) from 1563 to 1721, after which it passed to the
Russian Empire as part of the Governorate of Estonia, though Dagö's Swedish population kept most of their privileges. Most of the island's previously numerous
Gammalsvenskby or were "
Estonianization" during the period of Imperial Russian rule, although a minority remained until the 20th century.
Estonian Swedes are also known as
aibofolke ("the island people" in the
Estonian Swedish) or
rannarootslased ("coastal Swedes" in Estonian). Administratively the island of Hiiumaa belonged to Lääne County.
World War I
Hiiumaa was occupied during World War I by the Imperial German Army, in
Operation Albion. After the war, in 1918, it became a part of independent Estonia.
World War II
The waters near Hiiumaa were active during World War II:
-
23 June 1941: The Soviet destroyer Gnevny was sunk by a German naval mine.
-
25 June: the Soviet minesweeper T-208 Shkiv was destroyed by a German seamine.
-
27 June: Two German motor torpedo boats, S43 and S106, were destroyed by Soviet seamines.
-
1 July: the Soviet submarine M-81 was destroyed by a German seamine north of Hiiumaa.
-
7 July: the Soviet minesweeper T-216 was sunk.
-
30 July: the Soviet minesweeper T-201 Zarjad was sunk.
-
10 August: the German submarine was sunk by a torpedo from the Soviet submarine SC-307.
-
Hiiumaa Island was occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940, by Nazi Germany in 1941, and by the USSR again in 1944.
Hiiumaa remained under Soviet control until Estonia regained independence in August 1991. During the period of Soviet occupation (1944–1991), Hiiumaa was declared a restricted zone, closed to foreigners and to most mainland Estonians. A number of derelict Soviet forts and communication towers are still present on the island's northern coast.
Natural environment
Hiiumaa is an island in
Estonia located north of
Saaremaa in the
Baltic Sea. It is the northernmost island in the Muhu archipelago, which includes Saaremaa and
Muhu.
Hiiumaa has a low relief (up to 68 m above sea level)
and is mostly formed of limestone, that is exposed in cliffs around parts of the island's coast.
In the north of the island there are a series of fossilized beaches preserved as uplift has occurred. The modern beaches are primarily on the northern and western coast lines.
The natural environment is protected within the Tahkuna Nature Reserve and West Estonian Archipelago Biosphere Reserve.
The Hiiu Shoal (Nekmangrund) is located off the northwestern shore of Hiiumaa Island. The Soela Strait separates Hiiumaa from Saaremaa to its south, and the Muhu Strait separates it from the mainland of Estonia.
Ecology
fauna and flora of Hiiumaa are similar to the Estonian mainland. The
mammal fauna includes
elk,
red deer,
roe deer,
, foxes,
and
.
Wolves and bears have recently started to repopulate the island after being made locally extinct.
Minks were also reintroduced in 2000, after they were exterminated by
trappers.
Since the end of the 1990s the island shelters a conservation project aimed at restoring populations of
European mink, an endangered species of which there is about only 1,000 individual specimens left in Europe as of 2017. This project started with removing from the island all
that had escaped from
, and reintroducing some European minks. The latter started breeding.
[ The Baltic coast, video by Free High-Quality Documentaries, on youtube.com. For the European mink conservation project on Hiiumaa, see 32'20 - 34-02. For the American mink having supplanted the European mink and the former's removal from the island, see 33'40 - 34'02.]
The bird species found on the island include , , cranes, and . The forests are dominated by pine and deciduous trees, the rest of the uncultivated land is covered by swamps and dunes. The island has about 1000 species of large plants of which 50 are protected.
Geology
The exposed geology of Hiiumaa is composed of
Paleozoic limestone which dips towards the South, covered by
. In the North of the island the limestones are
Ordovician and they young upwards to the
Silurian in the South.
These limestones formed at 30 degrees South and have since been moving North with the rest of the Estonian block.
Bore holes have found
Cambrian and a
crystalline basement.
In the Ordovician (c. 455 million years ago) the sea floor was hit by a meteorite forming the 4 km wide Kärdla impact structure.
The limestone is overlain by Pleistocene glacial deposits that were deposited as the ice cap retreated 11 to 12 thousand years ago. These include , the two most prominent being one in the South of Island running towards the North-East and another forming the Kõpu Peninsula.
Climate
Towns and buildings
The island has several villages, as well a small town of Kärdla (pop. 3,287) and small boroughs of Käina and Kõrgessaare. The oldest surviving church was built in Pühalepa in 1259, though it was rebuilt in the 18th century.
The
Hanseatic League built a lighthouse in Kõpu near the start of the 16th century. It is the third oldest continuously operating lighthouse in the world.
Employment and land-use
The island's economy is mostly tourism, livestock, farming, wrecking, fishing, and fish processing.
The tourism is mostly seasonal.
Hiiumaa council agrees to the construction of a wind farm.
Transport
Road transport from Estonian mainland to Hiiumaa involves a 75-minute (28 km) ferry crossing from Rohuküla to
Heltermaa, which is 25 km by road from Kärdla. There are up to 10 ferry departures a day operated by
TS Laevad.
[ Praamid.ee. Ferry schedules and booking.] In the summer weekends, getting car space on the ferry usually requires advance booking. There are about 2 scheduled buses a day between
Tallinn (the capital of Estonia) and Kärdla.
In the winter, the island can be reached, conditions permitting, via a 26.5 km
ice road (the longest in
Europe) across the frozen Baltic Sea.
[ Estonia claims Europe's longest ice highway. The Independent. 19 February 2011. Retrieved 19 February 2011.] A bridge to the mainland of Estonia has been occasionally proposed.
Hiiumaa is served by Kärdla Airport, with regular flights to Tallinn. Bicycle rental is also available in Kärdla and there is a good bicycle path built from Kärdla towards Kõrgessaare.
Culture and politics
The island is part of the B7 Network, a loose grouping of the major islands of the Baltic Sea.
Smoked cooked
plaice is a traditional summertime delicacy. There is a friendly rivalry with the neighboring island of
Saaremaa.
Notable people
-
Juhan Maaker (1845–1930), Estonian folk musician
-
Rudolf Tobias (1873–1918), Estonian composer
-
Marie Under (1883–1980), Estonian poet, nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature several times
-
Roman von Ungern-Sternberg (1885–1921), Russian White military commander in the Russian Civil War
-
Aleksander Maaker (1890–1968), the last traditional player of the torupill (Estonian bagpipe)
-
Lydia Mei (1896–1965), Estonian artist
-
Ivan Triesault (1898–1980), Estonian-American actor
-
Natalie Mei (1900–1975), Estonian artist
-
Elmar Tampõld (1920–2013), Estonian-Canadian architect
-
Ülo Sooster (1924–1970), Estonian artist
-
Ave Alavainu (1942–2022), Estonian poet
-
Erkki-Sven Tüür (b. 1959), Estonian composer of contemporary classical music
-
Heiki Nabi (b. 1985), Estonian Olympic champion Greco-Roman wrestler
==Image gallery==
