Located deep in Estonia’s southeastern corner, the quiet agricultural settlement of Obinitsa is a major centre of Setu culture.

Main attraction is the Obinitsa Museum (Obinitsa muuseum) just east of the central crossroads. Housed in a traditional timber building, the museum gives an insight into Setu family life from the 1920s to the 1940s, with beautiful embroidered folk costumes, religious icons and intricate handicrafts.

The Setu Song Mother

If you continue east from here, you’ll arrive after five minutes at an artificial lake with a beach. Overlooking the lake from its unmissable hillside position is the granite statue of the Setu Song-Mother (Setu Lauluimä), a stylized tribute to the female singers who have kept the tradition of epic narrative songs alive. Scattered in the grass around the statue are boulders engraved with the names of individual performers who were bestowed with the honorific title of Lauluimä during their lifetime.

Obinitsa Church