Kuigatsi is a
village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...
in
Otepää Parish
Otepää Parish ( et, Otepää vald) is a rural municipality in Valga County, southern Estonia. It includes the town of Otepää.
Settlements
;Town
Otepää
;Small boroughs
Puka - Sangaste
;Villages
Ädu - Arula- Ilmjärve - Kääriku - ...
,
Valga County
Valga County ( et, Valga maakond or ''Valgamaa'') is a first-level administrative unit and one of 15 counties of Estonia. It comprises the former area of Valga District. The present-day county was created on 1 January 1990. The capital and lar ...
in
Estonia
Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...
.
[ (retrieved 13 March 2020)]
Kuigatsi was first mentioned in 1366. The Kuigatsi manor was located there, which was first mentioned in 1509. The manor's main building and several auxiliary buildings have been preserved. On the basis of the 1765 directive, a village school was created in Kuigatsi, which was opened in 1768. In the 20th century, the school operated in the main building of the manor until 1975. After that, the Valga district school for children with special needs (Kuigatsi Special Boarding School) found a place there, and later also an orphanage. It was liquidated in 2001.
Kuigatsi has been the center of the municipality. A library has been operating in the village since 1904, which is located in the village house. In addition to the library, there are social rooms, a youth room and a hall offering community services. In the past, there was also a shop in the same place.
There is a bus stop in Kuigatsi, and the Mägiste railway station is located 2 kilometers from the village center. The Võru–Kuigatsi–Tõrva highway passes through the village. The village is characterized by scattered settlements, the names of the farms are among others Haljamäe, Laudanurme, Pedajamäe, Luiga, Laane, Villemi, Hargo and others.
Clergyman Paul Uibopuu (1910–1984) and nature conservation figure and orienteer
Madis Aruja (1936–1995) were born in Kuigatsi. A white pine grows in the village, which is among the largest in Estonia.
References
Villages in Valga County
{{Valga-geo-stub