Estonian farm graveyards form an unusual and little known part of Estonia’s cemetery culture. A farm graveyard is a private graveyard set up on one’s own farmland, where family members are buried as a rule, yet sometimes neighbours or people who perished in wars were also buried in such graveyards.

The establishment of Estonian farm graveyards began in the last quarter of the 19th century, when C. R. Jakobson, a great figure of the period of Estonian National Awakening, established a family graveyard for himself at his farm in Kurgja, apparently after the example of Baltic German manorial estate graveyards. Jakobson’s farm graveyard has served as an example in the establishment of several burial grounds. About 34 farm graveyards in total have survived in Estonia.

This article introduces the reasons for the establishment of farm graveyards, and presents the history of their development. Distinctive approaches to designing graveyards, and traditions associated with those graveyards are described. Graveyards are preserved only if they are in use as burial sites. Abandoned graveyards generally fade away gradually. The same fate also awaits many of the farm graveyards that have been considered here.