Viljandi

Viljandi rises above a lake in southern Estonia, where an ancient stronghold of Sakala was replaced by a castle of the Sword Brothers after their conquest in 1223. The settlement beneath the fortress became a trading town, known to German merchants as Fellin. Its position on routes through Livonia helped it join the Hanseatic League in the fourteenth century.

The castle became one of the Livonian Order's strongest commanderies and housed its principal treasury. Its great walls guarded the brothers who governed the surrounding lands. During the Livonian War, Russian forces besieged Fellin in 1560. The town fell first; the castle followed when its poorly paid mercenary defenders refused to continue the fight. Later Polish–Swedish wars reduced the great fortress to ruins, leaving the hill above the town as a reminder of the order's former power.