Matsalu national park and the West Estonian islands.

Section 61. Vormsi Island and Kihnu Island.

SEE Worth seeing

Vormsi is an island where Swedes lived for centuries. Documents show that there was a settlement as early as in the 13th century. Vormsi was a Swedish-speaking island, where, for example, in 1934, 2,393 Swedes and 122 Estonians lived.
Vormsi Farm Museum is a typical pre-World War II farm of Estonian Swedish people. The farm has been restored with the help of old photographs, written sources, and the memories of the people of Vormsi who were born in Vormsi and fled Sweden to escape the war.
The museum sells Vormsi handicrafts, souvenirs, and Vormsi-themed books.
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 Pöhl, and the other for the Swedish missionary Österblom 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.
Vormsi church which dates back to the 14th century and is the main memento of its history and culture – is located in the centre of the island, in Hullo. The church was unused for a long time after the Swedish escaped from the island in the end of World War II. The church was dedicated again on Olav's Day in 1990.
Be sure to take a look at the characteristic square-shaped nave and have look at the old ceiling paintings in the altar room. Interesting facts: The first church in Vormsi was a wooden church. * St. Olav’s church in Vormsi is unique for the fact that it has no belfry, the bell hangs above the door under the high ridge. * There are two gnarled pine trees at the gate of the church – this is the place where the pillory stood.

Beautiful sea and island views.
One of the most fascinating places on Vormsi is the Huitbergi limestone hill in a spruce forest in the middle of the island. The hill is over 400 million years old and a coral reef polished by ice. The limestone outcrop is covered with moss, but fossils can be seen in places where there is no moss. Protected ferns have found their place there. The circular trail is marked with wooden signs.
You must go to the exciting Kihnu Museum when you visit the island. It like an anchor in preserving and introducing the cultural space of Kihnu, which has been entered in the UNESCO heritage list.
The museum was founded in the former schoolhouse of Sääreküla Village in 1974 and thoroughly renovated in 2009. You will find everything that concerns the everyday lives of people in the museum – tools, clothes, handicrafts, furniture. You will also find exhibitions that introduce famous Kihnu men, such as historian Theodor Saar, Captain Enn Uuetoa and silversmith Peeter Rooslaid, and the works of Kihnu nativists.
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 Jõnn, 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 Jõnn's last ship Rock-City, is buried next to him.

Kihnu lighthouse is situated on the southernmost tip of Pitkänä peninsula. It was brought here in 1864 from England, dismounted, and was reassembled on site. It is one of four cast iron lighthouses that remain standing on our shores. The tower is white, conical in shape and equipped with a lamp locker and balcony. The height of the light from sea level is 29 m.
The tower was renovated on 2018.

Did you know...? The lighthouse was built at the same time as those of Vormsi and Virtsu and is externally similar to them.
Kihnu Jõnn, otherwise known as Enn Uuetoa (1848-1913), was an Estonian sea captain. He rose to this rank thanks to many years of sea voyages in which he had not a single accident. He would captain large ships without the use of either a compass or a sextant, taking vessels out in which other captains did not dare go to sea.
Kihnu Jõnn went down with his ship the Rock City off the coast of Denmark one stormy autumn day in 1913.

The two-metre bronze memorial that has been erected to him guards the land-side sea gates of Pärnu by the city's yacht harbour.