Lohu (german: Loal) is a village in Kohila Parish, Rapla County in northwestern

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 ...

. Lohu railway station, on the

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju ' ...

Viljandi Viljandi (, german: Fellin, sv, Fellin) is a town and municipality in southern Estonia with a population of 17,407 in 2019. It is the capital of Viljandi County and is geographically located between two major Estonian cities, Pärnu and Tartu ...

railway line operated by Elron, in a short distance from the village. The ''Lohu Lelu'' company in Lohu produces wooden toys. It started trading in 1993.

Lohu manor

Lohu manor house was built in 1620. It originally belonged to a Baltic German family, and throughout most of its history continued to be in the hands of the local aristocracy. When Estonia proclaimed its independence in 1919, sweeping

land reform Land reform is a form of agrarian reform involving the changing of laws, regulations, or customs regarding land ownership. Land reform may consist of a government-initiated or government-backed property redistribution, generally of agricultural ...

s seized lands owned by almost all Baltic German families and signed them over to ethnic Estonians. In 1920, the manor was owned by

Johan Pitka Johan Pitka, VR I/1, (also Juhan Pitka; 19 February 1872 – 22 November 1944) was an Estonian entrepreneur, sea captain and a rear admiral (1919). He was the Commander of the Estonian Navy in the Estonian War of Independence. Johan Pitka ...

although it later changed hands several times. The original manor house was built of wood; it was replaced in the early 18th century by a stone house in

baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

style, later used as a manager's estate. A new main

classicist Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

building was erected in the 1780s, partly altered in neo-Gothic fashion during the 19th century. The interior boasts some fine grisaille mural paintings, executed by

Gottlieb Welté Christian Gottlieb Welté (3 December 1745/49 – 17 December 1792) was an etcher and landscape painter from Mainz, Germany. His works, accomplished mostly in small format, represent rococo and transition to early classicism. In Estonia, he paint ...

and considered to be among the finest examples of such interior details in Estonia. Other noteworthy interior details, such as the wainscoting and other carved wooden details, date from the late 19th century.

References

Villages in Rapla County Kreis Harrien {{Rapla-geo-stub