Maasi is a village in

Saaremaa Parish Saaremaa Municipality, also known as Saaremaa Rural Municipality ( et, Saaremaa vald), is a municipality in Saare County in western Estonia. It is the largest municipality in Estonia by land area. The administrative centre of the municipality is i ...

Saare County Saare County ( et, Saare maakond or ''Saaremaa''; la, Oesel; german: Ösel; sv, Ösel) is one of 15 counties of Estonia. It consists of Saaremaa, the largest island of Estonia, and several smaller islands near it, most notably Muhu, Ruhnu, Abru ...

, on the eastern part of

Saaremaa Saaremaa is the largest island in Estonia, measuring . The main island of Saare County, it is located in the Baltic Sea, south of Hiiumaa island and west of Muhu island, and belongs to the West Estonian Archipelago. The capital of the island i ...

Island,

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

. It is located just northwest from

Orissaare Orissaare is a small borough in Saaremaa Parish, Saare County in western Estonia on the island of Saaremaa. Orissaare TV Mast (180 m) is located in Orissaare. An oak growing in the middle of Orissaare stadium won the title of European Tree o ...

, the administrative centre of the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

. Maasi is bordered by Väike väin Straits on its northeastern side. The village has a population of 4100(as of 1 January 2012). Before the administrative reform in 2017, the village was in

Orissaare Parish Orissaare Parish was municipality in Saare County, Estonia. The municipality had a population of 2,116 (as of 1 January 2007) and covered an area of 163.02 km². During the administrative-territorial reform in 2017, all 12 municipalities o ...

Maasilinna Castle

Maasi is best known for

Maasilinna Castle Maasilinn Castle (german: Soneburg) is located in Maasi village in Orissaare Parish, Saare County, Estonia. It served as the centre of Eastern Saaremaa and Muhu in Medieval times. History It was established in 1345 by Livonian Order' ''Landmeis ...

(german: Soneburg), which in Medieval times served as the centre of Eastern Saaremaa and

Muhu Muhu (also called Muhumaa in Estonian), is an island in the West Estonian archipelago of the Baltic Sea. With an area of it is the third largest island belonging to Estonia, after Saaremaa and Hiiumaa. Together with neighbouring smaller isl ...

. It was established in 1345 by

Livonian Order The Livonian Order was an autonomous branch of the Teutonic Order, formed in 1237. From 1435 to 1561 it was a member of the Livonian Confederation. History The order was formed from the remnants of the Livonian Brothers of the Sword after the ...

' ''Landmeister''

Burchard von Dreileben Burchard (and all variant spellings) may refer to: __NOTOC__ People * Burchard (name), Burchard and all related spellings as a given name and surname * Burckhardt, or (de) Bourcard, a family of the Basel patriciate * Burchard-Bélaváry family, an a ...

after complete quelling of the St. George's Night Uprising. It was meant to replace the former seat of the local

vogt During the Middle Ages, an (sometimes given as modern English: advocate; German: ; French: ) was an office-holder who was legally delegated to perform some of the secular responsibilities of a major feudal lord, or for an institution such as ...

Pöide Pöide (german: Peude) is a village in Saaremaa Parish, Saare County, on the eastern part of Saaremaa Island, Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the n ...

Castle, which was previously destroyed by the

Oeselians Oeselians ( la, Oesel, , sv, Ösel, da, Øsel, fi, Saarenmaa) is a term historically applied before the Northern Crusades up to the 13th century to people who were living on the island of Saaremaa or Oesel as it was known back then, an island ...

. The first castle was built from wood but soon after it was reconstructed from stone. The castle was destroyed twice in the

Livonian War The Livonian War (1558–1583) was the Russian invasion of Old Livonia, and the prolonged series of military conflicts that followed, in which Tsar Ivan the Terrible of Russia (Muscovy) unsuccessfully fought for control of the region (pre ...

. Since then it has stayed in the ruins. File:Maasi stronghold 2007 1.jpg, File:Maasi linnus.jpg, File:Maasi stronghold 2007 3.jpg, File:Maasilinnus alumine ruum.jpg,

References

Villages in Saare County Castles of the Teutonic Knights {{Saare-geo-stub