Ruhnu
| Ruhnu | ||
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| State : |
 Estonia
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| Circle : |
 Saare
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| Coordinates : | 57 ° 48 ' N , 23 ° 15' E | |
| Area : | 11.9 km² | |
| Residents : | 56 (2006) | |
| Population density : | 5 inhabitants per km² | |
| Time zone : | EET (UTC + 2) | |
| Website : | ||
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Ruhnu ( Swedish and German Runö ) is a small island of the Moonsund Islands in the Baltic Sea , located in the Bay of Riga , which politically belongs to Estonia and forms its own municipality. Ruhnu is the southernmost island in Estonia.
Ruhnu is about 40 km east of the Latvian Cape Kolka . It is 96 km to the Estonian Pärnu . The island is only 11.9 km² in size. There is a small village whose wooden church was built in 1644.
The island was inhabited by Swedes until the Second World War . It was mentioned for the first time in a decree of the Bishop of Courland in 1341, who placed its residents under Swedish jurisdiction. Even when Runo fell to the Russian Empire, the peasants could refer to this letter. So serfdom was not possible on the island. A Swedish dialect, the Runsk, developed on the island .
After the end of the tsarist empire, the island's inhabitants wrote a letter to the Swedish king and asked him to accept Runö into the Swedish state. However, the king refused, leaving residents the choice of joining Estonia or Latvia. Estonia was chosen because there was a Swedish minority there. The traditional life of the residents is impressively documented in the 1931, 18-minute documentary Ruhno by the Estonian filmmaker Theodor Luts .
On August 4, 1944, almost the entire population fled to Sweden from the Red Army . This meant the end of the more than 700 years of Swedish culture on the island.
Today around 60 Estonians live on Ruhnu. Only these people and people who work there are allowed to drive on the island by motorized vehicles. Holidaymakers, on the other hand, move on foot, by bike or are transported between the ferry and the village in a minibus. As a result, mostly only natural noises can be heard on the island. In summer there is a regular passenger ferry connection to Kuressaare and Pärnu .
Ruhnu also has a small airfield . The airline Air Livonia flew weekly to Pärnu and Kuressaare from there until April 30, 2006 , but had to discontinue the connection after the aircraft type Antonov An-28 was revoked in Estonia. Since November 2006, the northern German aviation company Luftverkehr Friesland Harle has been flying the routes to Kuressaare and Pärnu with a twin-engine Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander . A new contract has been in effect since 2009 with year-round supply to the island.
literature
- Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Rußwurm : Eibofolke or the Swedes on the Ehstland coast and on Runö. A historical-ethnographic study with documents, tables and lithographed supplements. Butcher in commission, Reval u. a. 1855.
- Jörgen Hedman, Lars Åhlander: Runö. Histories of Svenskön i Rigabukten. Dialogos, Stockholm 2006, ISBN 91-7504-185-5 .
Web links
- Official website of Ruhnu
- Flight connections to Ruhnu
- Historical map sheet
- How Roņu Island came to Estonia. (Latvian)
