Meremäe Park of Mourning

Voldemar Rannaste was sixteen when he and his parents were deported to Siberia in June 1941. Half a century later he created this small memorial park on his own land, and it was consecrated on 14 June 1991, the 50th anniversary of the deportation, by the Orthodox priest Father Yevgeni. A plain memorial stone and a little cairn stand among eight oaks, one for each Meremäe family taken away that summer. Locals call it a holy place of the parish, and people still come with flowers and candles on the days of remembrance.