Vao is a village in
Väike-Maarja Parish,
Lääne-Viru County
Lääne-Viru County ( or ''Lääne-Virumaa'') is one of 15 counties of Estonia. It is in northern Estonia, on the south coast of the Gulf of Finland. In Estonian, ''lääne'' means western and ''ida'' means east or eastern. Lääne-Viru borders Id ...
, in northeastern
Estonia
Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...
.
Since 2014, Vao is the location of Vao Accommodation Centre, an accommodation centre for asylum seekers. Since the
European migrant crisis
The 2015 European migrant crisis was a period of significantly increased movement of refugees and Human migration, migrants into Europe, mostly from the Middle East. An estimated 1.3 million people came to the continent to request Right of asyl ...
has gained wide media attention in Estonia, Vao Centre has become the site of demonstrations against refugees. On 3 September 2015, the external wall of the center was set on fire. No one was hurt in the incident.
Vao Castle

Vao () castle is a well-preserved medieval tower fortress. It was built in the later half of the 14th century as a so-called "vassal castle", i.e. a
smaller fortress built to keep control in areas where large strongholds were not needed. Other notable examples of such castles in Estonia are
Purtse and
Kiiu castles.
In 1442, the castle belonged to the family Wack. Subsequently it has belonged to various aristocratic families. In the 1770s the tower was certainly no longer used a manor, since at this time a new baroque manor house was built in the vicinity.
In 1986, the castle was renovated. During the renovation new painted glass windows made by Estonian artists Tuuli Puhvel and Anne Ehasalu were also added. There is no indication that the tower was ever involved in any military action.
The castle was not designed for any major military operations, which can be deduced from the thickness of the walls. It was built of local limestone, to a height of four storeys. The cellar was used for storage, the ground floor was used as an office for the feudal lord, the second floor was the Lord's living quarters and the top floor had a purely defensive function. The living quarters were well equipped with a latrine, a chapel, a bed alcove and a fireplace.
See also
*
History of Estonia
The history of Estonia forms a part of the history of Europe. Human settlement in what is now Estonia became possible 13,000–11,000 years ago, after the ice from the last Ice age, glacial era had melted, and signs of the first permanent popula ...
*
List of castles in Estonia
References
External links
Vao castleat Estonian Manors Portal
Vao stronghold tower-museumat Väike-Maarja Municipality
Villages in Lääne-Viru County
Castles in Estonia
Kreis Wierland
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