Coast of Ösel

Off the coast of Ösel, the Baltic washes the shores of the largest island in the West Estonian archipelago. Known in Estonian as Saaremaa, the island lies northwest of the Gulf of Riga, which it partly separates from the open sea. Its inhabitants were noted seafarers, and in medieval chronicles their raiding fleets earned a fearsome reputation. Denmark acquired the bishopric and island in 1559; Ösel later passed to Sweden in 1645 and to Russia in 1721.