Valjala

Valjala was a stronghold of the islanders of Saaremaa, its great earthwork enclosing a fortified centre and a settlement defended by its own rampart. In 1227 a crusading army marched across the frozen sea and besieged Valjala after attacking Muhu. The defenders surrendered and accepted baptism. Soon afterwards a stone church dedicated to St Martin was begun, among the earliest such buildings in Estonia.

The church was damaged during the uprising of St George's Night in 1343 and rebuilt with Gothic features. Its older Romanesque forms survived alongside the later work, while the tower was completed much later. War reached Valjala again in the early eighteenth century: during the Great Northern War the church suffered damage, and the island's people endured both fighting and plague.