ESTONIA

ESTONIA / EESTI.

Saaremaa (Ösel) Island.
Stamp issued on 29.03.2012.
Face value: 0.45 euro.
Design: Indrek Ilves.
Printing: Offset lithography.
Print: 520,000 copies.
Size: 43 x 33 mm.

Catalogues
- AFE No. 753.
- Michel No. 724.
- Scott No. 698.
- StampWorld No. 764.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 677.
- Yvert et Tellier No. 671.

Saaremaa (in German and Swedish, Ösel; in Danish, Øsel; in Latin, Osilia; old Viking name, Eysýsla) is the largest island in Estonia. It is located in the Baltic Sea, south of the island of Hiiumaa and west of the island of Muhu and mainland Estonia. It has an area of 2,673 km² (1,032 sq mi) and its population, in January 2020, was about 31,500 inhabitants. The capital of the island is Kuressaare. In 1227, during the Northern Crusades, the island was conquered by the Livonian Brothers of the Sword (Fratres militiæ Christi Livoniæ), who were later absorbed into the Teutonic Order, which established the partially independent bishopric of Ösel-Wiek. In 1560 the island was sold to Denmark, who in 1645 ceded it to Sweden. In 1721, Saaremaa and the rest of Swedish Estonia were made part of the Russian Empire by the Treaty of Nystad, and since then the island followed the same fate as the rest of the present Republic of Estonia.