Spithami ( sv, Spithamn) is a village in Lääne-Nigula Parish, Lääne 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 ...

. It was inhabited by

Estonian Swedes The Estonian Swedes, or Estonia-Swedes ( sv, estlandssvenskar, colloquially ''aibofolke'', "island people"; et, eestirootslased), or "Coastal Swedes" ( et, rannarootslased) are a Swedish-speaking minority traditionally residing in the coastal ...

until

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. During Soviet rule it was a military area in which civilian entry was banned. Earlier forms of the village's name include ''Spithaven'', ''Spithave'', ''Spithaff'' (all mentioned in 1514), ''Spythave'' (1564), ''Spiuthampn'', ''Spithaven'' (both 1565) and ''Spiuthambre'' (1798). In Estonian, the village has been also called ''Põõsaspea'' (mentioned as ''Põesapi'' in 1922) before moving to the current form, which is an Estonian spelling of the original Swedish toponym. Nowadays the name Põõsaspea only indicates a nearby cape situated inside the village's borders.

Pictures

File:Põõsapää küla (Spithamnsbyn), Spithami juures (Spithamn) SLS 443 20 - 1934.jpg, alt=, Põõsapää küla (Spithamnsbyn) in 1934

References

Villages in Lääne County {{Lääne-geo-stub