Photos: Bellingshausen memorial rock unveiled in Saaremaa
A memorial rock was unveiled near Pilguse Manor in Saaremaa on Wednesday dedicated to Fabian Gottlieb Benjamin von Bellingshausen, a Baltic German cartographer, explorer and naval officer in the Imperial Russian Navy. The Saaremaa-born Bellingshausen is credited among the first explorers to discover Antarctica.
It was on the Estonian island of Saaremaa that Bellingshausen was born in 1778 and spent the first ten years of his life.
It took as many years for the Saaremaa Maritime Culture Society to overcome various obstacles and disagreements in order to commemorate the Russian admiral on the island.
Set atop a 26 metric ton boulder, the memorial, depicting the route of Bellingshausen's voyage circumnavigating Antarctica two centuries ago, was designed by sculptor Margus Kadarik.
"Of course, credited as his birthplace is Lahetaguse Manor, which isn't quite here, but Pilguse Manor likewise belonged to the Bellingshausens, and surely he ran around here during the first ten years of his life too," explained society director Rein Sepp.
Known as Lahhetagge in German, none of the buildings of Lahetaguse Manor survive today.
"You can always find political power struggles, but that doesn't change what he meant to the global scientific world," said Urmas Dresen, director of the Estonian Maritime Museum (EMM). "And that should be the main point of departure."
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Editor: Aili Vahtla
