Kuressaare - Laurentiuse kirik

The island of Saaremaa was conquered in 1227 by the Order of the Brothers of the Sword. It fell under the rule of the Teutonic Order a short time later, after the latter had united with the Order of the Brothers of the Sword.

The present town formed around a bishop's castle. The settlement itself has been documented since 1424. The town grew and flourished around the fortress. It became the see of the Bishopric of Ösel-Wiek.

Johann von Münchhausen, bishop since 1542, converted to Protestantism. With the advance of the troops of Tsar Ivan IV of Russia in the course of the Livonian War, he sold his lands to King Frederick II of Denmark in 1559 and returned to Germany. Frederick sent his brother Magnus to Kuressaare where he was elected bishop the following year. The bishopric was finally secularised in 1572 and Kuressaare fell to the Danish Crown.

In 1645, it passed to Swedish control, but the city was burnt to the ground by Russian troops in 1710 during the Great Northern War and was incorporated into the Russian Empire in 1721.

The Laurentius Church was built in the 1830s. There were two predecessing churches here, the first of which was destroyed in the Great Northern War and the second burnt to the ground in 1828.