Mustvee

Mustvee is a small town in eastern Estonia, on the west coast of Lake Peipus and part of Mustvee Parish in Jõgeva County. Its name means black water, from the Estonian words must and vee, and may once have been a parallel name for the lake itself. The town is first attested in sources of 1493, and from the late seventeenth century it became a safe haven for several thousand Eastern Orthodox Old Believers who fled religious persecution in Russia, which is why ethnic Estonians and ethnic Russians each make up about half of its roughly 1,100 residents. Mustvee has held fairs for about two centuries and is a traditional fishing town at the broadest part of the lake. It is increasingly popular with tourists, and a new harbour was opened there on 18 December 2014.