Saaremaa

Kuressaare and the bishop's castle

The island's only town of any size is Kuressaare — a quiet place of single-storey wooden houses, a central square with a classical town hall, and a handful of spa hotels that occupy some of the larger 19th-century buildings. The town has around 13,000 residents and the quiet, orderly character of a place where commerce and administration have proceeded without interruption for several centuries. The central street, Tallinna and Lossi, connects the town hall square to the castle grounds in a few minutes' walk.

The centrepiece is the Bishop's Castle — Kuressaare piiskopilinnus — a 14th-century fortification built by the bishops of Osel-Wiek and surrounded by a moat that still holds water. The castle is one of the best-preserved medieval fortifications in the Baltic states: its rectangular tower, thick limestone walls, and intact great hall give a sense of medieval defensive architecture that is easier to read here than in many more famous castles where later alterations have obscured the original structure. The inner courtyard is shaded in summer and used for outdoor concerts. The castle now houses the Saaremaa Museum, where the permanent exhibition traces the island's history from prehistoric settlements through the Hanseatic period, the Swedish and Russian eras, Estonian independence, Soviet occupation, and the restoration of independence in 1991. The collection is strong on local archaeology, natural history, and the wartime period — the island saw significant fighting in 1941 and 1944, and the exhibition handles this history with care.

The castle grounds, enclosed by earthwork bastions added in the 17th century, are open freely and make a pleasant walk in the evening light. The moat is still home to mute swans; the outer walls look out over the bay, and from the corner tower you can see across to the Muhu causeway on a clear day.

Windmills, juniper, and stone

The landscape of Saaremaa, Estonia is unlike the mainland. The island sits on a limestone plateau that the sea and ice have shaped over millennia — the soil is thin and poor, supporting juniper heathland, windswept coastal meadows, and orchid-rich alvar grasslands rather than the dense spruce and pine forest of northern Estonia. This thinness of soil, combined with the island's exposure to Baltic winds, gives Saaremaa a horizontal character — long views across open heath to the sea, stone walls rather than fences, and the particular quality of light that comes from a sky unobstructed by tall trees.

The windmill hill at Angla, on the northern coast road between Kuressaare and the Panga Cliff, is one of the most photographed spots in Estonia. Five wooden post mills stand in a row on a low ridge, their sails facing into the prevailing westerly wind. These are working museum pieces — Angla once had as many as forty windmills — and they represent a milling tradition that shaped the island's grain economy for centuries. The site has a small museum and cafe; the windmills themselves can be seen from the road, but entering the site gives access to the interiors.

The Panga Cliff on the northern coast is Estonia's highest coastal cliff — at 21 metres it is modest by European standards, but the setting is dramatic: the dolomite drops vertically into the sea, and on a windy day the waves send spray up the face. The cliff top walk, marked from the car park, runs along the edge for about a kilometre before descending to a boulder beach. The Vilsandi National Park covers the western tip of the island and a chain of small islands and islets to the west — a protected coastal landscape of meadow, reed bed, and shallow sea that is important for breeding and migratory birds. Whimbrel, barnacle goose, and various wader species use the area in spring and autumn.

The Kaali meteorite crater

About 18 kilometres northeast of Kuressaare, near the village of Kaali, a meteorite struck the island roughly 7,500 years ago with enough force to leave a cluster of nine craters scattered across the forest. The main crater is about 110 metres across and perhaps 22 metres deep; it is now filled with a still, dark lake that reflects the surrounding trees. The site is the most accessible meteorite impact crater in Europe open to the public, and the walk around the rim takes only a few minutes, but the scale of the depression — visible from the rim as a sharp bowl dropping away below — makes an impression.

The impact was almost certainly witnessed by the people who lived on the island at the time. Scholars have connected the Kaali event to creation myths in Estonian and Finnish mythology, and some have suggested it may be the source of the "sacred fire" legends that appear in several ancient Baltic texts. The small on-site museum explains the geology, the meteorite composition, and the archaeological evidence — including the remains of a stone wall that appears to have surrounded the crater rim in antiquity, suggesting the site had ritual significance within a generation or two of the impact.

Island food and drink

Saaremaa has a food culture that is closer to the farm than to the restaurant in its instincts. The island produces its own rye bread, baked in traditional round loaves with a dense, sour crumb that is quite different from the commercial rye breads sold on the mainland. Local farms raise pigs, cattle, and sheep on the alvar grasslands; the meat — particularly the lamb — has a character shaped by the island's thin-soiled, herb-rich grazing that is notable to anyone who pays attention to such things.

Saaremaa beer — originally brewed on farmsteads, now produced commercially by Saaremaa Brewery — is the standard drink. The brewery's lager is found everywhere on the island and is one of the better-regarded Estonian beers. For something more local, the farmhouse breweries that operate around the island during festivals and summer markets produce ales and dark beers using traditional methods. Smoked fish — particularly eel and sprats from the surrounding waters — are sold at the harbour market in Kuressaare and from roadside stalls near the fishing villages on the south coast.

The best restaurants in Kuressaare are concentrated around the castle grounds and the central square. Veski Tall in the old mill building near the castle serves Estonian meat and fish dishes in a stone interior; Grand Rose SPA Hotel's restaurant is more formal and has the best wine list on the island. For a simpler meal, the cafes along Tallinna Street serve open sandwiches, soup, and the kind of daily lunch that office workers eat — honest food at reasonable prices with no pretension toward anything else.

Island pace and cycling

Saaremaa's appeal is partly in what it lacks: there is no rush, no crowd, and very little noise. The roads are quiet enough that cycling feels natural rather than brave — drivers expect cyclists and give way accordingly. The island is largely flat, the distances between points of interest are manageable (Kuressaare to Angla is about 40 kilometres; Kuressaare to Panga Cliff about 55), and the views across open heath to the sea are constant. Bicycle rental is available in Kuressaare from several operators near the castle. Most visitors cover the main circuit — castle, Angla, Kaali, Panga, west coast — in two days by bicycle, or one long day by car.

The coastline is long enough that you can walk a beach alone even in high summer. The best beaches are on the south and east coasts: Järve beach near Nasva is sandy and shallow; the beaches around Mändjala, southwest of Kuressaare, are quieter and backed by dunes. The west-facing shores are rockier and wilder, more suited to walking than swimming, but the light in the evening across the open water is worth the drive out.

Getting to the island

Ferries run frequently from the mainland port of Virtsu to the island of Muhu — roughly half-hourly in summer, less often in winter. The crossing takes about 30 minutes. Muhu is connected to Saaremaa by a 2.5-kilometre causeway across the Väike väin strait; driving onto Saaremaa takes another ten minutes from the Muhu ferry terminal. From Tallinn, the drive to Virtsu takes about two hours on the main Parnu highway; from Riga, the drive through Parnu takes about three and a half hours. Buses from Tallinn connect to the ferry and continue to Kuressaare, with the whole journey taking around four hours.

Most visitors spend two or three nights — enough to see the castle, drive or cycle the coast, visit Kaali and Angla, and absorb the island's particular quiet before returning to the mainland. The island receives the majority of its visitors in July and August; May, June, and September are quieter and often have good weather, with fewer cars on the roads and easier access to the better-known sites. Accommodation in Kuressaare ranges from the large spa hotels on Pargi Street to smaller guesthouses in the wooden houses of the residential streets; advance booking in July is essential, and the most characterful places fill months ahead. Outside the town, farmhouse guesthouses near Angla and along the south coast offer a quieter alternative for those who want to be embedded in the landscape rather than in the town.

History of the island

Saaremaa has been continuously inhabited for at least 5,000 years, and its position at the entrance to the Gulf of Riga made it strategically significant from an early period. The island's medieval name in German and Latin sources was Ösel — the Swedish form was Ösel too — and it was known for the seamanship of its people; Saaremaa Vikings raided Scandinavian and mainland Baltic coasts in the 12th and 13th centuries, sufficiently aggressively that the Livonian crusaders made the island a priority target in the conquest of the eastern Baltic. The island was subdued in 1227 and divided between the Livonian Order and the bishops of Osel-Wiek, whose castle at Kuressaare remains the most visible monument of that period.

The island passed to Denmark in 1559 during the Livonian Wars, then to Sweden in 1645, and to Russia under Peter the Great in 1710. It was German-occupied during the First World War and saw significant fighting during the Second, when German forces took it in 1941 and Soviet forces retook it in 1944 — the "Moonzund Operation" involved some of the heaviest combat in the Estonian theatre of the war. The island was a closed military zone throughout the Soviet period, accessible only to residents and those with special permits — a restriction that paradoxically preserved its landscape and traditional character at a time when other parts of Estonia were being industrialised or urbanised.

The Muhu island stopover

Muhu, the small island between the mainland ferry port and Saaremaa, is worth at least a few hours on its own. The Muhu churchyard at Liiva village contains one of the finest examples of medieval stone carving in Estonia — a 13th-century church with an unusual carved portal and frescoes that survive in fragments inside — and the island's interior has several traditional farmsteads, some of them now operating as guesthouses in the manner of a working museum. The Pädaste Manor on the island's southern coast operates as a luxury hotel and restaurant that has become one of the most acclaimed in the country, drawing food-minded visitors who use it as a base for exploring both Muhu and Saaremaa; the restaurant's tasting menu draws on produce from the manor's own kitchen garden and the surrounding sea. The drive across the Muhu causeway from the ferry port to Saaremaa takes about fifteen minutes; turning off to explore the island's interior adds perhaps an hour to the journey and is worth the detour for those with the time.