First stop, Kuressaare Castle. It was built in the 13th Century for the bishop as at the time Saaremaa was a bishopric. The castle also housed exhibits about the island, including its history and nature. Unfortunately, we kind of had to rush through as we had a lot planned for the day. We went up onto the walls, but the view wasn't terribly interesting as the castle is quite a ways from the city and the bastions around the castle were currently under reconstruction.
We spent a little bit of time walking around the city, but there really wasn't much there. This picture is of the town hall.
Along the north coast of the island are some cliffs. This was apparently a popular spot to make sacrifices prior to Christianity, but even afterwards, it was common for brewers to pour some beer off the cliffs for good luck. There was really nice trail that went along the cliffs, but I had to cut that hike short as we went to the next location.
This is one of the oldest churches on the island. Originally Catholic, it was whitewashed during the Reformation, although some of the artwork has since been restored.
(From Wikipedia as I couldn't take pictures inside)
Among the restored artwork is this triskelion which is a common ancient symbol throughout Europe. What is unique about this one though is that one of the legs is broken. The theory is that to ancient Estonians, the triskelion represented the continuous cycle of time. However, on Saaremaa, time once stopped, which is why one leg is broken. I will explain more later.
Windmills were once common on Saaremaa, but these are among the few that still exist, but no longer operate. I found myself fascinated by how these two different times of windmills worked. The smaller one set on top of a pivot so that the entire structure could be turned to face the wind (It's been pointed out that there's a problem with perspective in the picture as the smaller windmill was closer to the camera, making it appear larger). The larger one was a Dutch-style windmill where only the top part moved. The wheel on the back is actually a lock that would sit on a corner and hold the top into place. Since the body of the windmill is an octagon, it could locked in eight fixed positions, whereas the smaller windmill could be turned to face any position. So the larger windmill is digital and the smaller windmill is analog.
This is Kaali Crater and the reason time stopped on Saaremaa. Several thousand years ago, Saaremaa was struck by a meteorite, making it the only populated area to suffer such a catastrophe. Other than possibly killing a few people, the event likely through up enough dirt and smoke that the sun was blotted out for several days, so thus time stopped. Unfortunately, very little is known about the impact. It is estimated the the impact took place between 4,000 and 7,000 years ago, weighed between 400 and 10,000 tons, and struck at a velocity between 15 and 45 km/s. Essentially, all that says is a large, fast-moving object hit Earth a long time ago.
It is not entirely known how deep the crater is. For one, the water level is constantly changing based on the amount of rain. However, it is surprisingly deep given its size. At one point, a nobleman wanted to build a gazebo in the middle of the crater and had his servants throw large rocks into the crater to form an island he could build on. He gave up on the project after several days of watching rocks sink into nothingness. Another attempt to drain the crater also proved fruitless as the large amount of mud in the crater simply clogged the pumps.
We finished off the day with a visit to the sauna. It was kind of nice to enjoy a sauna with only a handful of people instead of nearly twenty.
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