Discover Nepste

A 34.2-hectare protected area, two erratic boulders, and historical records of the village offer concrete perspectives on Nepste: habitats, geological features, and the village’s history. For planning your trip, they provide a clear guide based on your interests: nature takes centre stage at the protected area and the boulders, while the farmstead name, map, and school history offer insights into the past.

Nature and Erratic Boulders in Nepste

The Nepste hoiuala protected area is located in the village of Nepste and covers 34.2 hectares. It protects the habitat types listed in Annex I of Directive 92/43/EEC: rivers and streams (3260), old natural forests (9010*), and herb-rich spruce forests (9050).

The three habitat types range from water bodies to two kinds of forest. Among the forests, the conservation objective distinguishes old natural stands from herb-rich spruce forests; the codes help identify the named categories unambiguously. The area figure answers the question of size, while the three names identify the ecological focus.

The erratic boulders also add specific geological features to the natural setting. The Arumetsa väike rändrahn erratic boulder in the village of Nepste is trapezoidal, has visible cracks, and is 90 per cent covered in moss. Its trapezoidal shape describes its form, while the cracks and moss coverage add specific surface features.

Another erratic boulder in the village of Nepste, the Asuja rändrahn, has a circumference of 19.2 metres and is 2.87 metres high. Comparing the two boulders provides different points of reference: Arumetsa can be identified by its shape and moss coverage, and Asuja by its circumference and height.

The History of Nepste

The village of Nepste was named after the first farmstead to be settled, Nepste. The first official records of Nepste date from 1797, when the place name Nepsti was entered on the Livonian map drawn by Count Mellin. The farmstead name and the map entry provide two different historical reference points: one explains the origin of the name, while the other dates its early official mention.

A later point of reference is the revision sheet of 1858. According to it, there were five households in the village of Nepste: Nepste, Aruoja, Saki, Sooba, and the Kõruja schoolhouse. There are 61 years between the 1797 map and this sheet. The chronology thus runs from the map entry of the place name to a later listing of the five households.

Further details add to the history of the school: an Orthodox auxiliary school operated in Kõruja in the village of Nepste from 1854 to 1896. Mats Talts had been a teacher at Kõruja School since 1887. The dates highlight different points: 1854 to 1896 marks the period during which the auxiliary school operated, while 1887 marks the start of Talts’s teaching career.

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