Saaremaa

Saaremaa (German, Ösel), island, western Estonia, separating the Baltic Sea from the Gulf of Riga. It is a low-lying island with an area of approximately 2,922 sq km (1,128 sq mi); livestock raising is the principal economic activity. The island was taken by a German religious order of knights, the Brothers of the Sword, in 1227. It subsequently passed to Denmark (1561), Sweden (1645), Russia (1710), and the USSR (1940). Saaremaa was also a part of independent Estonia from 1918 to 1940, and since 1991. The main settlement on the island is Kuressaare (population 16,111), which in 1990 was the first town to regain the status of a regional authority in independent Estonia. It is the only place in the Baltic states to be included in the World Health Organization (WHO) Healthy Cities Project. Population 40,111 (1999 estimate).