Haapsalu

Haapsalu is a seaside resort town on the west coast of Estonia and the administrative centre of Laane County. On 1 January 2020 it had a population of 9,375. The first written record of the town dates to 1279, when it was chartered and became the capital of the Bishopric of Osel-Wiek, which it remained for the following three centuries; an episcopal castle with the largest single-nave church in Estonia survives from those days. The area was the centre for the Estonian Swedes from the thirteenth century until almost all of them were evacuated in 1944, and in Swedish and German the town was called Hapsal. In 1825 the military doctor Carl Abraham Hunnius founded the first mud cure resort here, and the sea mud made Haapsalu a favoured summer destination of the Russian imperial family. The town is also known for Haapsalu shawls and for its summer festivals.