Kuressaare () is a
town and a
municipality on
Saaremaa island in
Estonia. It is the capital of
Saare County. The current population is about 15,300.
The town is situated on the coast of
Gulf of Riga and is served by
Kuressaare Airport.
thumb|left|Kuressaare castle towers over the moat at dusk Etymology
Its historic name
Arensburg (from
Middle High German a(a)r: eagle, raptor) renders the
Latin denotation
arx aquilae for the town's castle. The fortress and the eagle,
tetramorph symbol of Saint
John the Evangelist, are also the depicted on Kuressaare's coat of arms.
The name was replaced by Kuressaare (probably from
Estonian kurg: crane) in 1918 after Estonia had
declared its independence from
Bolshevist Russia. Under
Soviet rule the town from 1952 to 1988 was called
Kingissepa after the
Bolshevik Kuressaare-native
Viktor Kingissepp killed in 1922 (not to be confused with the
Russian town
Kingisepp, formerly
Jamburg).
History
Kuressaare first appeared on maps around 1154. The island of Saaremaa (
German, ) was conquered by the
Livonian Brothers of the Sword under
Volkwin of Naumburg in 1227, who merged with the
Teutonic Knights shortly afterwards. The first documentation about the castle (
arx aquilae) has been found in Latin texts written in 1381 and 1422. The town around the fortress flourished and developed after it became the see of the
Bishopric of Ösel-Wiek established by
Albert of Riga in 1228, part of the
Terra Mariana.
thumb|left|Town hallJohann von Münchhausen, bishop since 1542, had turned
Protestant. With the advancement of the troops of Tsar
Ivan IV of Russia in the course of the
Livonian War, he sold his lands to King
Frederick II of Denmark in 1559 and returned to Germany. Frederick sent his younger brother
Prince Magnus to Kuressaare where he was elected as bishop in the following year. From him the town obtained its
civic charter, modeled after that of
Riga in 1563. The bishopric was finally
secularised in 1572 and Kuressaare fell to the
Danish crown.
In 1645 it passed to
Swedish control by the
Treaty of Brömsebro after the Danish defeat in the
Torstenson War. Queen
Christina of Sweden granted to her favourite
Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie the title of a Count of Arensburg, the
German and
Swedish name by which Kuressaare was known at that time. The town was burnt to the ground by Russian troops in 1710 during the
Great Northern War and suffered heavily from the
plague. Abandoned by the Swedish it was incorporated into the
Governorate of Livonia of the
Russian Empire with the 1721
Treaty of Nystad.
During the 19th century Kuressaare became a popular
seaside resort on the
Baltic coast. In October 1990, Kuressaare was the first town in Estonia to regain its self-governing status.
thumb|left|The castle in spring Culture
The medieval episcopal castle today houses the Saaremaa Regional Museum. Annual
chamber music recitals are held in summer.
Kuressaare is a safe and healthy town, open for international cooperation and communication. It also hosts the
FC Kuressaare football club.
Born in Kuressaare
- Louis Kahn (1901-1974), Estonian-American architect
- Voldemar Väli (1903-1997), two-time Olympic medalist for Estonia in the sport of Men's Greco-Roman Featherweight Wrestling.
Twin towns
Ekenäs,
Finland since
21 November 1988Rønne,
Denmark since
3 October 1991Mariehamn,
Finland since
24 October 1991Skövde,
Sweden since
23 June 1993Vammala,
Finland since
30 June 1994Turku,
Finland since
30 May 1996Talsi,
Latvia since
27 May 1998Kuurne,
Belgium since
9 August 1998 See also
