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 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 the largest municipality by land area and largest rural municipality – or parish – by population in Estonia. The administrative centre of the municipality is its only town Kuressaare. It is one of three parishes comprising the county, along with Muhu and Ruhnu Parish. It was formed following the 2017 Estonian municipal reform on 21 October 2017 on the basis of all twelve former Saaremaa municipalities: Kuressaare town and Kihelkonna, Laimjala, Leisi, Lääne-Saare, Mustjala, Orissaare, Pihtla, Pöide, Salme, Torgu and Valjala parishes.

History

Saaremaa Municipality was formed following the 2017 Estonian municipal reform on 21 October 2017 on the basis of all twelve former Saaremaa municipalities: Kuressaare town and Kihelkonna, Laimjala, Leisi, Lääne-Saare, Mustjala, Orissaare, Pihtla, Pöide, Salme, Torgu and Valjala parishes. Previously, in 2014, the municipalities of Kaarma, Kärla, and Lümanda had already merged, and initially wanted to use the name Saaremaa municipality for the merged municipality, but later decided in favour of the name of Lääne-Saare municipality. In 2014 it became clear at a meeting of the heads of Saaremaa municipalities that other county municipalities would also not be against a merger, and the respective merger committees began their work as early as 2015. Although Pöide municipality did not initially join the merger agreement signed on 1 December 2016, the Government of Estonia, based on the proposal of the regional committee, decided to forcibly merge Pöide municipality with the upcoming Saaremaa municipality. As a result, the Pöide municipality council also decided to join the merger negotiations. File:Saare municipalities 1992–1999.png, 1992–1999 File:Saare municipalities 1999–2014.png, 1999–2014 File:Saare municipalities 2014–2017.png, 2014–2017 File:Saare municipalities 2017.png, 2017–...

Government

The municipality is governed by the Saaremaa Municipality Council which consists of 31 members elected to four year terms via party list. The mayor and its cabinet is elected by the municipality council. The current mayor is Mikk Tuisk. The current chairman of the municipality council is Jaanus Tamkivi.

Districts

Saaremaa municipality is divided into thirteen (rural) districts – ''osavallad''. The aim of the districts is to maintain local initiative and identity, to involve residents in deciding local issues and to represent local interests. The town of Kuressaare is a separate territorial unit, not being part of any district. Service centres have been established in every district to provide and manage public services.

History

Government

Districts

Settlements

Town

Boroughs

Villages

References