Saaremaa County (Estonia)

Saaremaa Maakond

Last modified: 2001-05-23 by dov gutterman
Keywords: saaremaa | estonia |
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by Ivan Sache , 23 January 2000
Adopted: 26 September 1996
Ratio: 7:11
Capital: Kuressaare

• The County
• Coat of Arms

See also:

• Estonia

Municipalities:

• Kaarma
• Karla
• Kihelkonna
• Kuressaare Linn
• Kuressaare Vald
• Laimjala
• Leisi
• Lumanda
• Muhu
• Mustjala
• Orissaare
• Pihtla
• Poide
• Salme
• Valjala

The County

Saaremaa is the biggest Estonian island in the Baltic Sea. It was under the Teutonic Order in the Middle Ages and later under Denmark, and belonged to Sweden 1645-1721; in Swedish it is called ?sel. From 1721 it was Russian and after the first world war it became a part of independent Estonia.
There used to be a Swedish speaking minority on the island, but not much is left of it now. Most of the Swedish speaking Estonians fled to Sweden following the Soviet occupation in 1944 (or during the German occupation 1941-44).
Elias Granqvist, 21 May 2001

Coat of Arms

by Ivan Sache, 10 January 2000

From http://www.saare.ee/domino/html/mv.nsf/webDoc/ajalugu: Coat of arms first time adopted on 5 February, 1937.
Erki Kurrikoff, 15 April 2001