Kiikla
Coordinates: 59 ° 17 ' N , 27 ° 14' E
Kiikla ( German Kiekel ) is a village ( Estonian küla ) in the rural municipality of Alutaguse (until 2017 Mäetaguse ). It is located in Ida-Viru County in northeast Estonia .
Description and history
The village has 245 inhabitants (as of 2006).
Kiikla was first mentioned in 1241 in the Liber Census Daniæ . A mansion was probably built for the first time in 1601.
August von Kotzebue
In 1780 the Baltic German baron Friedrich von Rosen founded a home and amateur theater in Kiikla . The writer and playwright August von Kotzebue was a frequent guest there. In Kiikla, Kotzebue met his future wife Friederike Juliane Eleonore von Essen. Kotzebue's son, later the Russian lieutenant general and circumnavigator Moritz von Kotzebue (1789–1861), was born there.
August von Kotzebue wrote two of his dramas in the manor of the Baron von Rosen . The play The Hermit was premiered there.
In Kiikla, Kotzebue made a lifelong friendship with the Baron's tutor at the time , Friedrich Gustav Arvelius (1753–1806), a formative popular enlightener and writer of his time. Arvelius later supported Kotzebue's work at the amateur and amateur theater in Tallinn . Arvelius, who had studied in Leipzig and was a follower of Pestalozzi , wrote his two most important Estonian-language works in Kiikla, Üks Kaunis Jutto- ja Õppetuse-Ramat (1782 and 1787) and Ramma Josepi Hädda- ja Abbi-Ramat (1790).
In 1991, a memorial plaque was inaugurated on the manor house of Kiikla in honor of Friedrich Gustav Arvelius.
During the Soviet occupation of Estonia, the manor house was used to manage a collective farm . The building is currently empty.
Web links
- Description and history (Estonian)