Toila is a village located on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea. The administrative center of Toila parish in the Ida-Virumaa county of Estonia. Seaside resort.
Toila is located about forty kilometers from the city of Narva and
has a population of 920 (as of March 1, 2012). It is located directly on
the Gulf of Finland and is known to tourists for its Baltic Sea beaches.
There is a small marina in the village.
Toila was first mentioned
in 1428 under the name Tulis. The farm was built at the beginning of the
17th century. In 1765 the manor of Toila was mentioned.
From the middle of the 19th century, the previously sleepy Toila
developed into a popular air resort. Numerous Russian, German, Baltic
and Estonian townspeople moved here for the summer vacation.
With
the construction of the railway line between the Estonian capital
Tallinn and the Russian capital Saint Petersburg in 1870, the tourist
development of Toila increased rapidly. Numerous summer houses were
built on the Baltic Sea coast and on the banks of the Pühajõgi River.
From 1897 to 1899, the St. Petersburg businessman Grigory Yeliseyev
had the Oru Castle built in Toila. The gigantic building with 57 rooms
stood in a spacious park with native and exotic tree species. The
luxurious construction cost five million rubles. The house housed a
valuable art collection. in 1935, Estonian large-scale industrialists
acquired the property and donated it to Estonian President Konstantin
Päts as a summer residence. The castle was completely destroyed in 1941
during the Second World War. The park is preserved.
After the
First World War and the independence of the Republic of Estonia, the
development of Toila as a recreational destination continued. Among the
numerous artists and intellectuals who spent the summer months in Toila
were Henrik Visnapuu, Friedebert Tuglas, Artur Adson, August Gailit,
Betti Alver, Valmar Adams, Aleksis Rannit, Johann Köler and Paul Pinna.
in 1918, the Russian poet and translator Igor Severyanin (1887-1941)
emigrated to Toila.
Today there is a large sanatorium in Toila,
which was extensively restored and modernized after the restoration of
Estonian independence.
In addition to fishing and tourism, since
1911 there was also one of the largest dairies in Estonia before the
First World War.
Toila also became known as the place of the first Estonian country theater. It was founded in 1881 by the socially and culturally active farmer Abram Siimon (1844-1929). When the theater burned down in 1901, the patron had a new stone building erected. A memorial stone commemorates the theatre life in Toila today.
On August 10, 2002, the German Military Cemetery of Toila was
inaugurated in the immediate vicinity of the Ostsee-Klint. From the
military cemetery, a wide view opens over the Gulf of Finland. The war
cemetery is under the care of the Volksbund Deutsche
Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V. More than 1,500 German and 600 Estonian fallen
of the Second World War have found their final resting place there.
The cemetery goes back to the German military cemetery, which was
created in 1944 for 2,000 fallen of the Narva Front. After the war,
parts of the cemetery were used as a training ground for Soviet border
troops. It is thanks to the vastness of the site that only a small part
of the burial grounds were destroyed in the process.