On the west coast of Saaremaa, 3 km from Kihelkonna towards Kuressaare, one of the most unique museums in Estonia is located – the Mihkli farm museum. It has not been necessary to do collection work for its construction: in addition to the complete complex of buildings, a rich collection of useful objects was preserved on the site. The exhibited objects and tools are mostly made or used by the inhabitants of this farm. The birthday of the Mihkli farm museum is February 5, 1959, when the last owner of the farm, Jakob Reht (1886–1969), gave the historical building complex together with most of the preserved ethnographic consumables to the then Saaremaa Home History Museum free of charge, remaining the first employee of the newly created farm museum.
Mihkli talu is one of the oldest households in Viki village. The first written reports about the people who lived here date back to the first quarter of the 18th century. In 1711, Wicki was married to Peeter Reeda, and this marriage laid the foundation for the eight-generation family tree of the farm’s inhabitants. The order of the transfer of the farm from father to son was interrupted for the Estonian people in the difficult 1940s. The sons of the family died young, and the war and collectivization stopped the normal functioning of the farm.
In terms of buildings, Mihkli is a typical farm of Western Saaremaa, which is interesting primarily because of its diverse buildings. The residence and auxiliary buildings are arranged in a circle around the central courtyard, part of which is separated into a flower garden surrounded by a wooden fence. All around the farm there are pristine trees, from which larch was cut for the sheep in the past. Earlier thatched roofs were replaced by thatched roofs in the 20th century.
Residential building
According to tradition, the Mihkli farm house was built in 1834. The log building without a foundation with a half-pitched roof initially consisted of a vestibule, a kitchen under thatch and a room and a closet on the right side when entering.
In Estonian farm architecture, this type of housing is mainly typical of the western part of Saaremaa. On a wider scale, the underbrush is common in farm buildings in Kuramaa, Western Lithuania and East Prussia. Presumably, the Mihkli talu residential building was modeled on Latvia. At the same time, the mediating example of manors is not ruled out. In the case of Mihkl farm, the presence of a similar manor in the parsonage building of the Parish indicates a probable manor example.
The northern part of the house was added in 1864. The window and door openings were enlarged by a third at the end of the 19th century. In the main part of the house, a pig neck corner, which was common at the time, was used, in the extension we see a clean corner.
Over the decades, the walls of the burrow have been covered with a thick layer of hives. When the oven was fired, the kitchen was filled with smoke, which was directed into the chimney through openings above the door. If you wanted the smoke to stay in the room for a longer time (for example, when smoking meat), the openings were closed with wooden shutters. Among the items exhibited here is the museum’s oldest exhibit – a refrigerator from 1788.
The living room is located in the older part of the house. A variety of consumer items are on display.
The Carriage house
The building is made of stone and wood. The inscription on the dolomite slab in the wall shows that the building was erected in 1849 at the initiative of Peeter Reht (1822–1897), who was not yet the owner at that time. The wooden part was used as a storage place for horse harnesses and carriages, i.e. wheels. Vegetables, meat and dairy products were stored in the cellar under the stone part. There is a wood workshop on the basement. Under the conditions of a natural economy, as much work as possible was done by ourselves, in the building we can see tools from very different areas.
The Threshing Barn
The largest building of the farm, the threshing house made of limestone and logs, built in 1843, consists of three parts: a threshing floor, a threshing room and a horse stable. In 1861, the so-called bee building – storage room for beekeeping supplies.
Characteristic for the central and western part of Saaremaa, the threshing floor and threshing room of this building are the same width. The spread of this type of building points to former close ties with the southern part of the former Livonian Governorate. The trips of the construction workers here to Riga and its immediate surroundings were relatively frequent. It is known that Peeter Reht, one of Mihkl’s owners, went to Latvia for construction work, under whose initiative a large part of the buildings preserved to this day were built on the farm.
The threshing floor was used as a stable in winter. In addition to the items used on the farm, we also see items brought here from elsewhere: threshing equipment made in Finland, windmills, grain sorters, etc.
Grain was dried and pounded in a threshing room with a large oven, and birds were slaughtered. Since the farm had a separate house, the barn was not used for living. Threshers without a living function were quite rare during the feudal system.
Various vehicles and transport equipment are stored in the former horse stable.
Karl Friedrich Reht (1857–1937), the penultimate owner of Mihkl, built the large apple garden.
The Sauna
Considering the potential fire hazard, the sauna is located away from other buildings. The smoke sauna with an open heater, characteristic of the islands, was built in 1846 (wooden part 1910).
In the vestibule of the three-room building, sheep may have been kept during the winter months.
Old building (vana ait)
The oldest of the surviving buildings of the farm. According to external features, it belongs to the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. In any case, during the construction of the building, the crop has not yet been used on the farm. Grain chests stood here and apples were stored. The barn building has a far-reaching eaves. Here the handstone was located, tools were repaired, working tools found shelter.
New building (uus ait)
The new house was probably built in 1842. The new building is a multi-part barn with chambers. In the central part, there are separate rooms for clothes, meat and fish, and grain. The girls’ summer sleeping quarters were in the side-projecting chambers.
Logs sawn in half lengthwise from the chambers of a demolished old house have been used as material. Various notes have been preserved on the inner walls of the barns.
Paargu
Under one roof, there is a blacksmith shop, a paargu (summer kitchen) and a paargu chamber. The stone part was built in 1854. Medieval gravestones have been used in the construction. Presumably, they come from the old church in Kärla, which was demolished in 1836. In 1926, a steam room was built at the end of the house, where beer was brewed, milk was passed through, and which was sometimes also used as a sauna.
In the blacksmith’s shop we can see blacksmith tools and some of the forges necessary for farming. On the wall is a wooden carved woman’s head, so-called. Tusti Tiiu, which, according to tradition, was brought from the captain’s cabin of a Dutch ship that perished on Kihelkonna beach in the second half of the 19th century.
Barn
The barn is located away from the other buildings. It was built in 1989 on the model of an earlier table and is the latest building of the entire ensemble. The building houses the museum’s fund storage and a room for gatherings, temporary exhibitions are held here during the summer months.
The recreation ground next to the farm ensemble offers pleasant relaxation. Children can have fun on the village swing and playground. You can have a picnic in the summer kitchen. In the sauna under the same roof, it is possible to enjoy the relaxing effect and softness of a traditional Saaremaa heater sauna with prior notice. If necessary, a tent can be set up near the wind turbine for overnight stays.
We hope that by looking at our exhibits, you will get an overview of a piece of life in Saaremaa.
Welcome to the Mihkli Farm Museum!