Blog of Raivo Laanemets

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Abandoned and Burned

On 2023-03-11

I found an abandoned home while exploring the nearby places. It's about 5 kilometers from my home town Elva between small patches of forests and fields. I was on my usual weekend hike and was visiting this area for the first time.

A tall bruce was standing out from the rest of the trees. There was a faint trail leading to it and I followed. The trail led away from the main road.

The path was accompanied by electrical posts. The wires were cut. This was probably done by copper thieves, a crime which was common in Estonia in the nineties.

At the end of the path was a sad view: a half-burned building was standing in the middle of snow-covered piles of rubble.

I have no exact idea when people still lived here. The fire was likely 4-8 years ago, judging by the growing willow around the burned building.

I saw weird formation of trees, possibly from fire damage. There were traces of more buildings. I think it used to be a larger household.

People probably left the place around 25 years ago. It was a time when living on countryside proved to be increasingly more difficult compared to cities and towns.

I explored for a while and took photos of what I saw: a small pond, the tall bruce, a pile of field rocks, some plants, and then headed back to the town.

Approximate location: 58.210226, 26.381542