Kuressaare: the bishop's castle on Saaremaa island

On the island of Saaremaa, Kuressaare houses the best-preserved medieval castle in the Baltic countries alongside renowned thermal spas.

The center, dominated by the bishop's castle, is comfortably explored on foot.

The Bishop's Castle of Kuressaare, a Gothic fortress from the fourteenth century perfectly preserved, remains the only intact medieval castle in the Baltic countries.

A few steps away, the Saaremaa Museum, housed within the castle itself, recounts the islands history from the Vikings to the Soviet era, with original archaeological finds.

Heading inland one visits the Kaali crater, formed by a meteorite impact some four thousand years ago, among the youngest and best-preserved in the world.

As evening falls, the thermal spas of Kuressaare, a local tradition dating to the nineteenth century, offer treatments based on Baltic Sea mud and algae.

The Kaali Crater, formed by a meteorite impact roughly four thousand years ago, may have inspired local legends of a "sun fallen from the sky" according to some scholars of comparative Baltic and Scandinavian mythology.

Kuressaare's Episcopal Castle, built by the Teutonic Knights in the Fourteenth century, remains the only medieval castle in the Baltic countries to have survived without substantial modern reconstruction, with its original moat and walls intact.