Lääniste Stronghold

To the east of Võnnu, on the western bank of the River Võnnu there is the Lääniste stronghold (height 10m). During the Middle Iron Age (the 2^nd half of the 5^th century – the end of 8^th century) life in Estonia ceased to be peaceful. The people began to build strongholds. The location for the Lääniste stronghold was most favourable because the river never froze in winter and it was possible to come to the hill by a riverboat. Most probably in the ancient times water had surrounded the hill, earlier there was as impassable swampy area. In the 19^th century the hill of the stronghold was used as a graveyard by the local Russian population who had big families in Lääniste and neighbouring villages.  Most probably on the hill and the hillside (on the place of the schoolhouse) there could have been a village graveyard of Estonians because bones, old weapons and pieces of jewellery were excavated. Unfortunately, all these finds got lost. We may presume that on the hill or near it there was also a sacred grove of pagans. People knew there were rooms inside the hill but the entrance had fallen in a long time ago. At nights people had often been looking for a chest with money hidden in the hill. During the Great Northern War the neighbourhood of the hill was a major battlefield.

The Swedish battery was on the hill, bank of the river at Kargajapalu. The soldiers who perished were buried in the same place

Several legends are connected with the hill. People say that the hill has grown from the soil that Estonian epic hero Kalevipoeg carried in his shirt to make a bed when he was tired coming from Lake Peipsi. The Lääniste stronghold looks like a bed – for Kalevipoeg.