Esku chapel
The construction of the Esku stone chapel between 1843 and 1845 was ordered by Lord Paul Aleksander Eduard von Fock of Sagadi manor. A cemetery was also established in Esku for all the people of Sagadi.The chapel and the cemetery were consecrated on 28th October 1845.
The chapel was built as a successor to the dilapidated wooden chapel in Pihlapää.Since the baron registered the chapel in his name as his home church, the von Fock family had private ownership rights with regard to Esku chapel.Von Fock drafted the “Law of Esku Chapel”, which stressed that it was intended “only for the people of Sagadi”.In the cemetery, bodies were only buried in a fixed row, with similar-looking nameplates and brownish-black wooden crosses.Burial lots and gravestones started to be used in the Esku cemetery only after the baron’s lands were nationalised and the Law of the Chapel no longer had any effect.Upon the establishment of the Republic of Estonia, the chapel was amalgamated with the Haljala congregation, but Ernst von Fock contested the joinder, and in 1938 the Supreme Court reinstated the chapel as the property of the von Fock family.
At present, the chapel is owned by Valjala rural municipality.The Esku Chapel Foundation has been established for the purpose of restoring the chapel. The foundation has assumed responsibility for performing the necessary chapel maintenance.
