Beresje is a village in

Setomaa Parish Setomaa Parish () is a rural municipality of Estonia, in Võru County. It has a population of 2,849 (as of 1 January 2022) and an area of 463.1 km2. Demographics Population in the municipality: * 2000: 4,206 * 2011: 2,990 * 2022: 2,849 ...

Võru County Võru County ( or ''Võrumaa''; ) is a county in southern Estonia. It is bordered by Valga and Põlva counties, Latvia's Alūksne and Ape municipalities, and Russia's Pskov Oblast (making it the only Estonian county to border two countries) ...

in southeastern

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

. 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 that is still inhabited by

Old Believers Old Believers or Old Ritualists ( Russian: староверы, ''starovery'' or старообрядцы, ''staroobryadtsy'') is the common term for several religious groups, which maintain the old liturgical and ritual practices of the Russian ...

(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 Peipus Lake Peipus is the largest trans-boundary lake in Europe, lying on the international border between Estonia and Russia. The lake is the fifth-largest in Europe after Lake Ladoga and Lake Onega (in Russia), Lake Vänern (in Sweden), and Lake ...

. Before the administrative reform of Estonian local governments in 2017, the village belonged to Mikitamäe rural municipality and

Põlva Põlva (; ) is a town in southeastern Estonia, the county seat of Põlva County, and the centre of Põlva Parish. Põlva is home for the Intsikurmu Music Festival Grounds, which regularly hosts concerts and summer activities, situated in a sm ...

county.

References

Villages in Võru County {{Võru-geo-stub