Köstritalu
Köstritalu
Köstritalu is located at the very entrance to the Noarootsi peninsula, by Kulani road. Only the foundations of the farm have survived, but the Museum of the Coastal Swedes has erected an information plaque on the site.
Köstritalu (sacristan’s farm) was the residence of the sacristan of Noarootsi. From the second half of the 19th century it was also the parish school for children from the villages of Kudani, Vööla and Hara. Baron von Ungern-Sternberg of the manor as well as Girgensohn, the priest of Noarootsi, provided the construction materials for the building. Because space was limited in the early days, boys would go to school on one day of the week and girls on the other. In 1873, a classroom was built into the sacristan’s house. There were 25-30 pupils in the school, about half of them Estonian and half of them Swedish.
At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the house was extensively rebuilt. The children now had their own exit and there was also a bed chamber for children who came from further afield. Children from Hara village, for example, had a long journey to school, which meant they lived in the schoolhouse all week long.
A fire broke out in Köstritalu in 1920 and half the house burnt down. Due to a lack of space, the sacristan-schoolteacher was only able to use his bed chamber to teach children from the nearest village of Kudani. Given that nothing but the walls survived from the classroom and the municipality was unwilling to rebuild the school section, the sacristan-schoolteacher at the time bought the place, rebuilt it at his own expense and ran a school there for three years. In 1924, the school was relocated to Vööla manor.
Not only was Köstritalu important as a school, but it also served as a gathering place for adults, as its location made it a good place to rest on the way. People came here to meet up, borrow books, read Estonian and Swedish newspapers and magazines, or just to chat with the sacristan.
The best known of the Noarootsi sacristans was Johan Nyman, who was active between 1893 and 1933. He was also one of the pioneers of the national awakening of the Estonian Swedes. The first large meetings of the Estonian Swedes during the Estonian Age of Awakening were also held in Köstritalu.
The place is now owned by the congregation of Noarootsi and there is an information board at the site.
Johan Nyman (1859-1933)
Originally from Suur-Nõmmküla, Johan Nyman played a crucial role in promoting the self-awareness of the Estonian Swedes, even though he was a rather humble man.
Nyman was described as extremely curious even as a child and learned to read and write at an early age. When missionary Thorén founded the Paslepa Teachers’ Seminary in 1873, Nyman ended up getting admitted because of low enrolment. Nyman was only 14 years old at the time, making him the youngest student at the seminary. As he was too young to become a teacher on his own after finishing school, Nyman stayed at the seminary for a year to help Thorén. When Nyman turned 18, he became a teacher at Paslepa village school. In the last years of the Teachers’ Seminary, when most of the students were already Estonians, Thorén, who did not speak Estonian, found teaching more challenging and Nyman was asked to teach some of the subjects. In the final year of the seminary, Nyman became the leader of the seminary.
In 1883 Johan Nyman became a schoolteacher on Osmussaar and remained there for ten years. Despite having a small income, Nyman has said in retrospect that it was perhaps the happiest time of his life.
In 1883 Nyman was elected the sacristan of Noarootsi and became a school teacher. He also taught Swedish to Hans Pöhl from Aulepa, who later became Nyman’s comrade-in-arms in advocating for the cause of the Estonian Swedes and one of their leading figures.
Nyman started to think about the future of the Estonian Swedes while he was still on Osmussaar. The Russification at the end of the 19th century gave an additional push for Nyman to start pursuing his ideas about the cultural promotion of Estonian Swedish settlements.
His first step was an attempt to found the Noarootsi parish library together with Pöhl in the spring of 1900. Due to the opposition of the authorities, it proved difficult to set it up, and so they decided to establish a temperance organisation to facilitate the start-up of a library. Until then, books were lent out in secret. The temperance organisation, founded in 1903, became the first association of Estonian Swedes to spread education and knowledge.
In 1903, Nyman and Hans Pöhl published the first calendar of Estonian Swedes, which was coincidentally the first Swedish-language publication in Estonia after the Swedish songbook published in Tallinn in the 18th century. Nyman was also active in the founding of the next organisation of Estonian Swedes, Svenska Odlingens Vänner (Friends of Swedish Education), and in the publication of its newspaper Kustbon. Nyman was also on the editorial board of Kustbon.
Nyman died in 1933 and is now buried in the cemetery near Noarootsi church.