Lihula is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an o ...

Lääneranna Parish Lääneranna Parish ( et, Lääneranna vald) is a rural municipality in Pärnu County. It includes the town of Lihula.https://www.laanerannavald.ee/ (accessed 7 March 2020) Settlements ;Town Lihula ;Boroughs Virtsu ;Villages There are 150 vil ...

Pärnu County Pärnu County ( et, Pärnu maakond or ''Pärnumaa''; german: Kreis Pernau) is one of 15 counties of Estonia. It is situated in the south-western part of the country, on the coast of Gulf of Riga, and borders Lääne and Rapla counties to the nor ...

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, an ...

Lihula castle

The castle of Lihula (german: Leal) was first mentioned in 1211, but it appears the site was used as a fortress since the

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly ...

. In 1220, a Swedish army started constructing a castle here, but were defeated by Estonian forces on 8 August 1220, in the

Battle of Lihula The Battle of Lihula or Battle of Leal was fought between invading Swedes and Estonians for the control of a castle in Lihula, Estonia in 1220. The exact date remains uncertain, though some historians suggest that the battle took place on Augu ...

. In 1238, however, the bishop of Saare-Lääne (german: Ösel-Wiek) constructed a crusader fortress at the site, in cooperation with the

Teutonic Order The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly known as the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was formed to aid Christians on ...

. This attempt was more successful and the castle became one of the residences of the bishop. The Teutonic Order also used the castle as a centre of their commandry between 1241 and 1477. In 1560, the estate was reportedly granted to alderman

Gerdt Bellingshausen Gerdt may refer to: * Zinovy Efimovich Gerdt, Russian actor * Pavel Andreyevich Gerdt or Paul Gerdt (1844–1917), Russian dancer for the Mariinsky Theatre * Elizaveta Pavlovna Gerdt (Елизавета Павловна Гердт) (1891-1975), Russ ...

by Duke Magnus of Holstein. In the course of the

Livonian War The Livonian War (1558–1583) was the Russian invasion of Old Livonia, and the prolonged series of military conflicts that followed, in which Tsar Ivan the Terrible of Russia (Muscovy) unsuccessfully fought for control of the region (pr ...

, the castle was destroyed.

Lihula Manor

Despite the fact that the castle was destroyed during the Livonian War, a new manorial estate grew up right next to the original location thereafter. In the 1630s, it was recorded as the property of the Swedish general

Åke Tott Åke is a masculine Swedish given name, possibly derived from the medieval Germanic name ''Anicho'', derived from ''ano'' meaning "ancestor". In Sweden, May 8 is the Name day for Åke. There are variant spellings, including the Danish/ Norwegia ...

. The manor stayed in the Tott family until 1684, after which it belonged to various aristocratic families. The present

neoclassicist Neoclassicism (also spelled Neo-classicism) was a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassicism wa ...

manor house was built in the early 19th century.

Episcopal See

From 1211, it was the see of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Leal (also known as bishopric of Estonia), which was however suppressed as such in 1235, to establish on the same territory the Diocese of Dorpat, a prince-bishopric, which lasted till 1558, falling victim to the

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

Lihula Monument

For a short period there was a

monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, hist ...

in Lihula, honoring those Estonian soldiers who fought in the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the '' Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previo ...

against the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. By the order of prime minister

Juhan Parts Juhan Parts (born 27 August 1966) is an Estonian politician who was Prime Minister of Estonia from 2003 to 2005 and Minister of Economic Affairs and Communications from 2007 to 2014. Juhan Parts is a member of Isamaa party. Education Born in T ...

, the authorities removed the monument and as of June 2007, it stands in the Museum of Fight for Estonia's Freedom in

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju '' ...

Gallery

File:Lihula linnus 4.jpg, Lihula castle ruins File:Lihula linnus 3.JPG, Lihula castle ruins File:Lihula linnus 1.JPG, Lihula castle ruins File:Lihula linnus.JPG, Lihula castle ruins File:Lihula manor house 24Sep2008.jpg, Lihula manor File:Lihula kirik 2005.jpg, St. Elizabeth's Church in Lihula File:Lihula (2).jpg, Aerial view of Lihula, with the cultural center in the foreground and Lihula manor in the background

References

External links

*
Lihula castle and manor
at Estonian Manors Portal {{Authority control Cities and towns in Estonia Former municipalities of Estonia Kreis Wiek