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Religion & culture

Taevaskoda is one of Estonia’s most beautiful and important sacred natural sites. According to native tradition, it is sacrosanct in its entirety: the sandstone walls, the caves, springs and stones, the river, the earth, and the plants, animals and any other beings.

The Estonian native religion is the only native nature worship in Estonia. It was never created, it has arisen and changed in this country together with maarahvas (1)(Estonians) during innumerable generations. Estonia has been inhabited for about 10000 years. Maarahvas and their religion are considered just as old. Being an inseparable entity together with our land, traditional culture and native languages, its something more than a religion. It is a consistent worldview, tradition and way of life, which in this form exists only here, in Estonia.

In 2008, the Estonian Ministry of Culture approved the national conservation plan ‘Sacred Natural Sites in Estonia: Study and Maintenance 2008 – 2012’. The conservation plan indicates that nowhere else in Western Europe have sacred natural sites (SNSs) and the traditions associated with them been preserved so well and vividly as in Estonia. SNSs are a distinguishing and valuable part of Estonian native culture, forming a part of Estonians’ national identity.