Beresje is a village in
Setomaa Parish,
Võru County in southeastern
Estonia.
The village of Beresje represents a typical fishermen village, where all the houses are built in rows parallel to the shore of the Lake Pihkva. The village was first mentioned in 1582 and it belonged to Poloda area. The main activity was fishing (mainly sparling) and fish processing. The name is believed to be derived from the Russian word berjoza ('birch').
Beresje is the only village in Setomaa, which is still inhabited by
Old Believers
Old Believers or Old Ritualists, ''starovery'' or ''staroobryadtsy'' are Eastern Orthodox Christians who maintain the liturgical and ritual practices of the Russian Orthodox Church as they were before the reforms of Patriarch Nikon of Moscow bet ...
or “starovers”. At the end of the village there is a village cemetery, which also includes the burial site of the Old Believers. Beresje mere is a relic lake of Lake Peipsi.
Before the administrative reform of Estonian local governments in 2017, the village belonged to
Mikitamäe rural municipality and
Põlva county.
References
Villages in Võru County
{{Võru-geo-stub