Plague as a serious infectious disease was already known in Egypt in the 3rd century BC.

Bubonic plague, which ravaged Europe in the Middle Ages, came from Asia through Central Asia, Baghdad and Crimea to Italy in 1347. The following year, the plague reached France and England. In 1349, the plague was already in Scandinavia and Russia. Plague was spread by black rats and other rodents, more specifically by fleas parasitizing them. The plague also spread from an infected person as a drop or touch infection. There was no cure, as the causative bacterium was only discovered in 1894. Plague was seen as God’s wrath for people’s sins. In the Middle Ages, more than 1,000 prescriptions were proposed for treatment, none of which helped. It was recommended to hang dried toads in the room, to burn the clothes of those who died of the plague, to drink alcohol, to smear with various ointments, among them mercury-containing ointments, etc. Neither prayers nor medicines could help, and therefore the authority of both the clergy and the doctors fell.

The biggest epidemic in Estonia was the plague that started in 1710 and reached here via Riga. In the three counties of Põja-Estonia, 70-80% of the population died. 83% of the inhabitants died in the Maardu manor district, which also included the current village of Kallavere. The village of Rootsi-Kallavere was probably temporarily without inhabitants. Later, the population gradually recovered, with the support of both immigrants and natural increase. Many villages have Katku farms, which in one way or another are connected to the historical memory of the people.

There were so many victims of the plague that they could not be buried immediately and according to custom, because the buryers also died of the plague. The dead were often transported together on carts and buried in mass graves. At least three burial places of plague victims are known in Jõelähtme municipality – near the church, in Kroodi village and near Kella farm in Kallavere village.

300 years later, a mountain marker was erected at the burial place of the plague victims discovered on the lands of Kella talu in the former village of Rootsi-Kallavere.