Kõrgessaare Parish
Kõrgessaare ( German: High Holm ) is a rural municipality in the Estonian county Hiiu with an area of 379.5 km ², about 18 km away from the capital Kärdla. It has 1284 inhabitants (1 January 2010).
Villages
In addition to the main town Kõrgessaare ( Kõrgessaare alevik ) belong to the rural community of the Villages ( külad ) Heigi, Heiste, Heistesoo, Hirmuste, Hüti, Isabella, Jõeranna, Jõesuu, Kalana, Kaleste, Kanapeeksi, Kauste, Kidaste, Kiduspe, Kiivera, Kodeste, Koidma, Kopa, Kurisu, Kõpu, Laasi, Lauka, Lehtma, Leigri, Lilbi, Luidja, Malvaste, Mangu, Mardihansu, Meelste, Metsaküla, Mudaste, Mägipe, Napi, Nõmme, Ogandi, Ojaküla, Otste, Palli, Paope, Pihla, Poama, Puski, Reigi, Risti Rootsi, Sigala, Suurepsi, Suureranna, Sülluste, Tahkuna, Tammistu, Tiharu, Ülendi, Viita, Viitasoo, Vilima and Villamaa.
Community partnerships
There is a partnership with the community Dragsfjärd in Finland.
History
Kõrgessaare was first mentioned in 1532. Here was already in 1552 a good which is one of the oldest on the island of Hiiumaa. In years 1909-1914, the Belgian corporation " Viscosa " a rayon factory had founded. After the factory, the settlement was called Viskoosa, which has been preserved in the vernacular.
Worth seeing is mainly the landscape on the northwest coast of the island of Hiiumaa with its unspoilt nature and the lighthouses of Kõpu, Ristna and Tahkuna.
Estonia Memorial
The memorial for the sinking of the ferry Estonia in 1994 is dead on beach Tahkuna peninsula near the lighthouse at that point of Estonia, which is the crash site of the Estonia the next. From here one has a panoramic view of the sea. The memorial was erected in 1995 by Mati Karmin, has a height of nine and a half meters and is dedicated especially to those children who perished on the Estonia. From a pile of stones a tilted filigree sculpture towers over, which is formed from four small stainless steel beams and closed at the top of a square of four narrow steel beams. In this open square a long silver plated steel cross that is fixed swinging and at the lower end of which carries a bronze bell hangs. Mourners who come to the memorial can lay a stone on the cairn and strike the bell to get the deceased emotionally closer. In a storm the bell begins to ring; arouses in those who mourn, feel that the souls of the dead to bring this bell to ring. Therefore, the bronze bell is also called soul bell.