Osmussaar
Osmussaar
Osmussaar, Odensholm in Swedish, is located in the Baltic Sea, 7 kilometres off the northwest coast. The island is 5 kilometres long and about 1.5 kilometres wide. The Estonian Swedes themselves called the island Holmen while the people living on Osmussaar often used the name Backan.
The island has not undergone extensive archaeological exploration, but archaeologists have found signs of a Viking stopover at the chapel. It makes sense, since the island is located along the trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks. Written sources first mention Osmussaar in the 13th century, but Swedes living on the island are first mentioned in 1430.
There was only one village and it was located at the very centre of the island. The number of farms varied between 5 and 10 over the centuries. There were seven families living on the island from the 18th century until 1940: Brus, Stavas, Niggors, Erkers, Marks, Nybondas and Greis.
The surrounding fields and meadows were shared by the whole village, but divided into stringed fields – each farm had its own strip. Farming was mainly done by women. Locals cultivated barley and potatoes, but the main income came from fish sold on the mainland. The islanders also hunted long-tailed ducks and seals. Pilotage services for ships bound for Haapsalu, Tallinn or Riga also meant extra income. For this reason, each farm had a raised ladder overlooking the sea. The island had a lifeboat, and the islanders were exempt from military service. Looting of grounded and/or wrecked ships also provided some income.
Osmussaar belonged to under Uuemõisa manor. As the island was remote and it was not possible to go to the manor for mandatory work, the islanders limited themselves to paying rent. The rent remained unchanged from the 17th century – 5 barrels of salt and the same amount of fresh fish per year.
In 1902, Osmussaar was sold to von Schutz by Hunnius, the lord of Uuemõisa manor. In 1907, it was resold. At the beginning of the 20th century, there was a demand for the people of Osmussaar to buy out their land, but they refused to do so, insisting on the privileges granted by Queen Christina of Sweden, which specified a compulsory annuity of fish.
About a hundred or so people lived on Osmusaar. There were 130 residents before World War II. As a result of the 1939 Soviet–Estonian Mutual Assistance Treaty, the residents of the island were forced to leave the island in June 1940. Two weddings were held on the island the day before their departure on 12 June. The residents of Osmussaar were resettled on Vormsi, but because of the poor farmland there, they tried to migrate to Riguldi, which was also a more familiar place for the islanders. The Russians built military bases on Osmussaar. During the German occupation, the islanders were allowed to return to their home island. They found that their village had been destroyed. In 1943-1944, the Swedes of Osmussaare who had not been mobilised into the Soviet army relocated to Sweden.
During the Soviet era, there was a small border guard unit on the island and lighthouse keepers lived with their families near the lighthouse. In 1993 the soldiers left the island and it remained uninhabited for ten years.
As the land on the island did not belong to the residents there before World War II, they had no right to reclaim it. Today, Osmussaar belongs to the state and the island has been a protected area since 1994.
Permanent residents returned to the island at the start of the 2000s, with one family living there year round.
Island of Odin
The Swedish name Odensholm is associated with the Norse god Odin. In Viking mythology, Odin was the king of the gods and the god of death, wisdom, divination, sorcery and poetry. Norse myths describe him as a mighty warrior and the Vikings considered Odin to be one of the most important warriors, even compared to other gods. He commanded the fortunes of war and decided who would fall in battle.
According to one legend, Odin was buried on Osmussaar and the islanders knew of a specific boulder dubbed Odin’s tomb. The boulder was destroyed by the Russian occupiers who built fortifications on the island during World War II.
Another legend has it that Odin emptied his boot of the sand that had gathered there in Põõsaspea and that this sand formed into the island of Osmussaar.
Osmussaar chapel
Osmussaar chapel, of which only the tower and the foundation walls remain, was built of limestone and stood some distance from the village. The first wooden chapel on the island was probably built in the 16th century. On 3 September 1766, a limestone chapel was consecrated on the same site.
The chapel was small, measuring just 12×7 metres. It had a 10-metre-high tower that could be seen from the sea. It had simple furnishings, with seven rows of pews – one for each family living on the island. In total, the chapel seated about 80 people. A wooden figure of Martin Luther reading the Bible, a figurehead taken off a British ship that was cast aground near the island in 1852, was placed on the gate of the chapel.
The chapel was surrounded by a cemetery with a stone wall, where each family had its own row of graves.
Osmussaar chapel belonged to the parish of Noarootsi. Towards the middle of the 17th century, a prästhålde or arrangement was established whereby a priest visited the island once a year, on the last Sunday in July. This occasion was used to baptise any children who had been born and to bless the graves of those who had departed in the meantime. It was also when the islanders could receive communion. A local preacher conducted the services at other times.
The Soviet army turned the chapel into an ammunition depot. The chapel was hit in a shootout during the German invasion in the autumn of 1941. The nave and the choir walls were later demolished and the stones were likely used to build military structures. Only the stone part of the tower and the west wall of the nave remained standing.
Russian soldiers also plundered the cemetery. The stone fence of the chapel was taken apart and crushed to be used as concrete filling. The cemetery took a hit during the 1941 bombing. Grave markers were dumped and the graves have probably been looted. No intact grave markers have survived to date. However, the descendants of the residents of Osmussaar placed a memorial stone in the cemetery for each of the seven families who lived on the island.
In 1994, a new bell tower was consecrated at the chapel, built by former islanders.
In 2007, conservation work began on the chapel ruins under the initiative of the Odensholms byalag (Osmussaare Village Association), which represents the former residents of Osmussaare and their descendants in Sweden. The work was completed in 2012.