Setomaa Restores Hill Seitsmemägi, Important for Military Personnel
On the centenary of the founding of the Southern Training Camp of the Estonian Defence Forces, the milestone of the 7th Infantry Regiment – Hill Seitsmemägi – has been restored in Setomaa.
This year marks one hundred years since the founding of the Southern Training Camp of the Estonian Defence Forces, which was an important summer training site for soldiers during the First Republic. To commemorate this, on the initiative of Setomaa residents, together with soldiers and the State Forest Management Centre (RMK), the key landmark of the 7th Infantry Regiment that served there – Hill Seitsmemägi (Seventh Mountain) – was restored.
A hundred years ago, a summer training camp of the Defence Forces was set up in the hilly area near Pechory, which was then part of Estonia. The camp had about 25 buildings, and thousands of Estonian men trained there. During the Soviet occupation, both the camp and Seitsmemägi were destroyed.
On Sunday, a hundred years after the founding of the Southern Camp, the restored hill was unveiled. “I consider it very important to restore such a proud landmark, which symbolizes one of the summer camps of the Estonian Defence Forces that operated here during the First Republic, where thousands upon thousands of men from Southeast Estonia were trained to defend their state,” said Toomas Valk, the initiator of the restoration.
Just a year and a half ago, the site was covered by dense forest. However, with the help of volunteers, members of the Defence League (Kaitseliit), and US allies stationed in South Estonia, the previous landscape was restored, and a large number seven was re-laid out of white stones. Anyone interested could bring a white stone to honour the memory of their ancestors. “Several times when I came here, I saw people coming, grandfathers with their children and grandchildren, taking stones out of the trunk and carrying them to the top of the hill, into that seven,” Valk said.
Madis, a resident of Võru, said his grandfather was an officer in the 7th Regiment. “We lived in Pechory, in summer we were probably here in the Southern Camp,” Madis added. “In my time, a Soviet tank regiment was already here. I had no idea there were such beautiful hills and this water intake. Now, in the time of the Estonian Republic, it was a surprise,” noted Vasily, a resident of Pärnu.
A cultural heritage tourism trail and a campfire site have also been laid out around Seitsmemägi, and the forest itself is rich in mushrooms and berries.
