Maasi is a village in

Saaremaa Parish Saaremaa Parish, also known as Saaremaa Municipality (), is a municipality in Saare County in western Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland a ...

Saare County Saare County ( or ''Saaremaa''; ; ; ; ) is one of 15 counties of Estonia. It consists of Saaremaa, the largest island of Estonia, and several smaller islands near it, most notably Muhu, Ruhnu, Abruka and Vilsandi. The county borders Lääne Count ...

, on the eastern part of

Saaremaa Saaremaa (; ) is the largest and most populous island in Estonia. Measuring , its population is 31,435 (as of January 2020). The main island of the West Estonian archipelago (Moonsund archipelago), it is located in the Baltic Sea, south of Hi ...

Island,

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

. It is located just northwest from Orissaare, the administrative centre of the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

. Maasi is bordered by Väike väin Straits on its northeastern side. The village has a population of 4100(as of 1 January 2012). Before the administrative reform in 2017, the village was in

Orissaare Parish Orissaare Parish was municipality in Saare County, Estonia. The municipality had a population of 2,116 (as of 1 January 2007) and covered an area of 163.02 km². During the administrative-territorial reform in 2017, all 12 municipalities o ...

. During the reform, village of Laheküla was merged into village of Maasi. Formerly (1977–1997), Laheküla was also part of Maasi, but 1997–2017 it was a standalone village.

Maasilinna Castle

Maasi is best known for Maasilinna Castle (), which in medieval times served as the centre of Eastern Saaremaa and

Muhu Muhu (also called Muhumaa in Estonian) is an island in the West Estonian archipelago of the Baltic Sea. With an area of , it is the third largest island belonging to Estonia, after Saaremaa and Hiiumaa. Together with neighbouring smaller i ...

. It was established in 1345 by

Livonian Order The Livonian Order was an autonomous branch of the Teutonic Order, formed in 1237. From 1435 to 1561 it was a member of the Livonian Confederation. History The order was formed from the remnants of the Livonian Brothers of the Sword after thei ...

' ''Landmeister'' Burchard von Dreileben after complete quelling of the St. George's Night Uprising. It was meant to replace the former seat of the local

vogt An , sometimes simply advocate, (German, ), or (French, ), was a type of medieval office holder, particularly important in the Holy Roman Empire, who was delegated some of the powers and functions of a major feudal lord, or for an institutio ...

in Pöide Castle, which was previously destroyed by the

Oeselians Oeselians or Osilians is a historical name for the people who prior to the Northern Crusades in the 13th century lived in the Estonian island of Saaremaa ( Ösel) – the Baltic Sea island was also referred as ''Oeselia'' or ''Osilia'' in writ ...

. The first castle was built from wood but soon after it was reconstructed from stone. The castle was destroyed twice in the

Livonian War The Livonian War (1558–1583) concerned control of Terra Mariana, Old Livonia (in the territory of present-day Estonia and Latvia). The Tsardom of Russia faced a varying coalition of the Denmark–Norway, Dano-Norwegian Realm, the Kingdom ...

. Since then it has stayed in the ruins. File:Maasi stronghold 2007 1.jpg, File:Maasi linnus.jpg, File:Maasi stronghold 2007 3.jpg, File:Maasilinnus alumine ruum.jpg,

References

Villages in Saare County {{Saare-geo-stub