The Kodavere dialect is the core of the eastern dialect. The influence of the Votic language is particularly evident in it. The Kodavere dialect is also one of the most studied, having already been researched in the early 20th century by Finnish linguist Lauri Kettunen, who at the time considered it a vanishing language. The Kodavere dialect has been spoken in the northern part of the historic Kodavere parish: on the coast of the Lake Peipsi from Omedu to Kodavere, inland in the villages of Assikvere, Pala, Savastvere and others.
Trail map
Museums and heritage centres along the Kodavere dialect trail
Kodavere Heritage Centre - Kodavere Heritage Centre is in the village of Pala, creating a new purpose for the Pala municipality building, which was vacated due to the 2017 administrative reform. It is a stately building – Estonia's only municipality building with a tower – where the local government started to promote local life as early as 1874. The centre organises events on traditional culture and presents the Estonian peasant culture of the Kodavere parish in a variety of ways.
Alatskivi Castle and Eduard Tubin Museum - Alatskivi castle is the historicist Scottish Baronial-style main building of Alatskivi Manor, located in the former Kodavere parish in Tartu County. Located on the second floor of Alatskivi Castle, the museum's exhibition gives a good overview of the life and work of one of Estonia's most famous composers, Eduard Tubin. The exhibition introduces famous musicians who studied with Tubin in Tartu and were taught by Heino Eller. Tubin's manuscripts, recordings and books are on display for visitors to see and listen to. The exhibition also presents the performers of Tubin's works, as well as musical instruments, recordings and theatrical productions related to Tubin. You can also see films and photographs made by the composer himself.
Liiv Museum - Liiv Museum is located in Oja farm in the village of Rupsi, Peipsiääre municipality. The museum is in the house of writers Juhan and Jakob Liiv. The museum has a permanent exhibition on the life and creative work of the two writers. The museum was inspired by an exhibition dedicated to Juhan and Jakob Liiv at the Estonian Literary Museum.
Kalevipoeg Museum – The Kalevipoeg Museum is located in the village of Kääpa – the very place where the hero of the epic plowed. Kääpa is in Mustvee municipality, 36 kilometres from Jõgeva, 21 kilometres from Mustvee and 35 kilometres from Tartu. The national epic "Kalevipoeg" is the most translated Estonian work. The story of our ancient hero deserves to be discovered, and there is no better place to do it than in the Kalevipoeg Museum in Jõgevamaa. The museum was extensively renovated in 2020, and you can learn about the adventures of the giant hero through interactivity, games, films and more. There is also a playground and an adventure park.
Other heritage sites along the Kodavere dialect trail
Kodavere oak - Ranna Millennial oak (also Sooküla oak, Kodavere oak, Rannaküla oak, Ranna sacrificial oak, Swedish oak) is a sacred tree in the village of Ranna in Kodavere parish, Tartu County. The tree grows along the Aovere–Kallaste–Omedu road north-west of Sooküla and can easily be spotted in the open countryside and approaching from Jõhvi. Younger oaks have been planted around the tree, as only one branch of the original sacrificial oak has survived. The hollows have been filled in, a few dried branches sawed off and reinforced with metal stakes. The tree has a circumference of 4.7 metres and is 15 metres high. Although the oak is popularly thought to be a thousand years old, it is more likely to be 400 years old. The Ranna Millennial oak is a protected natural monument.
Kadrina Manor - Built in 1791, Kadrina Manor has been revitalised and is now used as a guest house with 13 cosy and homely rooms. The building is surrounded by beautiful countryside, within walking distance of the Lake Peipsi with its enchanting views and beach. Kadrina Manor offers exciting and adrenaline-pumping activities. For example, you can enjoy trips on speed boats, various water attractions and fishing on the Peipsi.
Pala Manor - Pala Manor (German Palla) was a knight's manor in Kodavere parish, Tartu County. Today the manor buildings are on the territory of Peipsiääre municipality in Tartu County. Pala Manor was separated from Jõe (Jaegel) Manor in 1701. The first owners were the von Bocks, who exchanged it for Kivijärve Manor in 1716. However, from 1716 until its alienation in 1919, it was owned by the von Stryk noble family. The manor's two-storey main building was built in the second half of the 19th century, the first floor of the building being of stone, the second of wood. The right end of the façade has a veranda supported by wooden columns. The manor is currently used as a residential building. Several outbuildings have been preserved, although they have been rebuilt in various ways.
Turgi Handicraft Farm - Turgi Handicraft Farm is in the Peipsiääre municipality, near Kallaste in the village of Torila. The Turgi handicraft and health farm is a place where you can go for several days away from the daily chores of everyday life and devote yourself to recharging your batteries, because breathwork, or releasing, conscious and connected breathing, helps you to meet your inner behavioural patterns and deeper being. Through the process of breathing, tensions in the body and mind are healed, and repressed feelings are released.
In a weaving course, you can connect with yourself: see new beauty being created by your own hands, experience being a creator. Delicious and healthy food is the best fuel for our bodies, and Ergo, the owner of Turgi Farm, knows and masters this art perfectly. You can share in the joy of his creation by ordering a four-course gourmet dinner. In the summer, you'll be welcomed in the drying barn restaurant, in the cooler months in the cosy living room. During the summer, the restaurant offers romantic lodgings in the granary and the drying barn room can be rented out for birthdays or weddings.
Kokora Manor - Kokora Manor (German Kockora) was a knight's manor in Kodavere parish, Tartu County. Nowadays the manor is in Tartu County, Peipsiääre municipality. Kokora Manor was founded in 1734, separating it from the neighbouring Alatskivi Manor. In the 18th century the manor belonged to the von Kirchers. Later, the manor was owned by the von Schultzes, and from the end of the 19th century by the von Rathlefs. The last owner of the manor before its alienation was Martha von Rathlef. At the beginning of the 19th century, a long, single-storey, classicist wooden main building was erected. The central part of the building was adorned with a portico on four circular columns and windows were adorned with triangular frontons. Today, the right-hand side of the building remains, while the central portico has been moved to the end of the building in a slightly modified form. The building is privately owned. The outbuildings have survived in a small number and have been converted or are in the process of decay. Several collective farm buildings, now dilapidated and in a state of disrepair, stand above the complex of farm buildings along the manor's access road.
Kääpa Monument - In the 1930s, a stone altar of fire was built on the hill where the Victory Day bonfire was lit, but which stood unused during the years of restored Estonian independence. In 1937, an oak alley was planted there by members of the Defence League, along which the victory flame was carried by three horses.
Kalevipoeg’s sword in the Kääpa River - The sword of Kalevipoeg, the hero of Estonian epic, lies in the Kääpa River, near the Kääpa Bridge. The sword is mentioned in legends as well as in epic. According to the epic, Kalevipoeg had a Finnish blacksmith make him a sword, but the blacksmith put a curse on it in revenge for the murder of his son. The salt sorcerer of the Peipsi stole the sword from Kalevipoeg and dropped it into the Kääpa River. Kalevipoeg wanted to punish the sorcerer and cursed the sword in his turn but was mistaken in his words. And so it happened that when Kalevipoeg once came to the banks of the Kääpa River and stepped into the water where his sword lay, the sword cut his legs to the knees and Kalevipoeg died.
Altar of the Holy Fire - This is the site of the former altar of the Victory Flame, where Victory Day was celebrated with great solemnity in the closing years of the first Republic of Estonia.
Alatskivi Kalevipoeg’s bed - Alatskivi Kalevipoeg’s bed, or Peatskivi mound, is a mound in the village of Peatskivi in Tartu County, Peipsiääre municipality. It is the place where Kalevipoeg rested and gathered strength. There are several Kalevipoeg’s beds in Estonia.
Birthplace of Anna Haava - Anna Haava (née Anna Rosalie Haavakivi (Hawwakiwwi)) was born on 15 October 1864 in Pala municipality, Kodavere parish, Tartu County, on the Haavakivi farm, and was an Estonian poet, librettist and translator. She grew up on a well-kept farm with many animals, where, in addition to his own family, she also had relatives and servants.
Igavere post station - It is a striking example of a post station built to a typical design. It is a single-storey, post office building with classical elements and half hipped roof. The front façade of the building is articulated by pilasters ending in triangular frontons. In 1712, the Livonian and Estonian knighthoods established the St Petersburg–Tartu–Riga postal route, of which Igavere post station was an important part. The present building was built according to a standard design in 1838–1841 years to replace an old wooden building. From then on, all the important personalities, up to princes and emperors, passed through it over the centuries. In 1889, postal services on the St Petersburg–Tartu route were discontinued, and the Igavere post station was left to operate as a local passenger transport facility – a private post station. In the 1920s the building was rebuilt as a community centre.
Tindimurru iron smelting site - Tindimurru iron smelting site is an ancient iron smelting site in the village of Pataste in Jõgeva County. The iron smelting site was discovered in 1985 when the site was investigated by Jüri Peets' archaeological team. The Tindimurru iron smelting site is one of the oldest in Estonia and it has been established that it was used between the 1st century BC and the 2nd century AD.
Saare Manor drying barn - Saare Manor (German Saarenhof) was a manor in Tartu County, Maarja-Magdaleena parish. Today the former manor is in Jõgeva County. In the 18th–19th centuries the manor was one of the most representative in the region. Today the main building has been demolished and the ensemble of buildings has been largely destroyed. The first records of Saare Manor date from 1512, when it belonged to the Tiesenhausen family. It was later acquired by the Bönings, and after them by the Scotts and the Schaumanns (ennobled von Greisenspeer). In 1685 the manor was nationalised, and in 1712 it was returned to the heiress of the last owners, through whom Saare passed into the hands of the von Bocks. The manor was inherited by the Manteuffel family in 1808 through a marriage and remained in their hands until the estates were alienated in the Republic of Estonia.
Halliku Manor - Halliku Manor was a knight's manor in Kodavere parish, Tartu County. The manor was founded in the second half of the 18th century on land separated from Saare Manor.
Roela cone dryer-museum - The cone dryer is located on the edge of the longest ekser in Estonia, Mõdriku–Roela. A section of the RMK Penijõe–Aegviidu–Kauksi hiking trail runs along the esker, and the trails of the esker offer long and short nature hikes under the centuries-old pine trees and century-old spruces, as well as the opportunity to enjoy the forest view and learn about the local heritage culture. This is a fascinating site telling the history of Estonian forestry. On 2 June 2019, an RMK information point was opened there, where you can find useful information about recreational opportunities and places of interest in the surrounding area as well as further afield in the state forest. Visitors can also have a look around the cone drying shed, which was built in 1928 by the State Forestry Directorate of the Estonian State Forestry Service and was the most modern in Estonia at the time.
Roela Hill-Fort - Roela Hill-Fort is an ancient Estonian promontory fort in the village of Voore in the Mustvee parish of Jõgeva County, on the land of Linnamäe farm, one kilometre southeast of the former Roela Manor. Situated on the bank of the Kullavere River, the riverside slope of the north-west-south-east facing hill reaches 15 metres, the west slope 6 metres.
Roela Manor - The earliest records of Roela Manor (German Ruil) date from 1453. The manor, which belonged to the von Taube family in the 17th century, has subsequently been in the possession of several families. The manor house was originally a one-storey Baroque building with a mansard roof from the second half of the 18th century. In the late 19th century, the building was extended several times (1871, 1880, 1884), resulting in a Gothic Revival timber building, partly one-storey and partly two-storey. Around 1910, a new mansion building in Heimat style, the 'annexe', was built a kilometre and a half north-west of the old manor house.
Alatskivi Nature Centre - The aim of Alatskivi Nature Centre is to raise people's environmental awareness through its activities, promote a nature-friendly way of thinking, nature education and active nature-loving in all aspects. It offers a range of opportunities to complement school curricula and raise environmental awareness for people of all ages.
Lake Alatskivi bridge - Lake Alatskivi is a reservoir lake in the Peipsiääre municipality of Alatskivi, Tartu County. The lake is impounded by the Alatskivi River. The lake covers an area of 22.9 ha and has an average depth of 2.5 m. Lake Alatskivi is divided into two lakes (Lake Lossijärv and Lake Veskijärv) by the Turba Bridge (formerly also known as the Valge Bridge). On 8 February 2014, the lake’s dam burst and water escaping from the back of the dam burst the pillar of the pedestrian bridge and the dam regulator. The dam and bridge had been completed a few months earlier in autumn 2013. A temporary stone embankment, hastily erected, prevented the reservoir from running dry. The water level dropped by around 1.0–1.5 m. By June of the same year, the lake had practically run dry, with water only in deeper areas.
Kalevipoeg’s bed (Estonian Kalevipojasäng) – Kalevipoeg’s bed is the name given to the place where Kalevipoeg rested and gathered strength. There are several beds in Estonia.
Kärneri windmill - Kärneri windmill is a mill made of ore stones located in the village of Rupsi in the Peipsiääre municipality of Tartu County. The windmill was built in 1801 at the request of Friedrich Kärner, the landlord of Kopli farm. The building originally had four floors. During the Second World War, the mill was hit by a Soviet tank, but was not badly damaged. During the Soviet occupation, when the collective farm Koit was operating in the area, the building was stripped of two floors and used as a silo. During the time of the Alatskivi sovkhoz, bulk cement was stored there. The mill building is now owned by Kopli farm.
Nina lighthouse - On Lake Peipsi, fog can sometimes rise in winter - like milk. The shoreline disappears from view in the mist, and when dusk falls, the light from the lighthouse cannot penetrate it. It is said that many years ago, fishermen trapped in the fog were helped by ringing church bells to let them know where the shore was. Nina's reinforced concrete lighthouse was built in 1938. Its visibility is less than 10 nautical miles. The height of the Nina tower is 11 metres, the height of the fire 14 metres. In spring, the famous icebergs of the Peipsi gather there. This is because of the stone bridge created by Kalevipoeg, the hero of the Estonian national epic.