Send Gift Baskets to Viljandi, Estonia

First records of civilization in the surroundings of Viljandi date back to the 5th millennium BC. The first written record of the earthen stronghold of Viljandi was in 1154 in the commentaries to al-Idrisi’s world atlas Geography.

The stronghold of Viljandi developed into the economic center of the ancient state Sakala.

In 1211 the hillfort of the Estonians in Viljandi was besieged by a joint army of Germans, Latvians, and Livs. This marked the first time this particular group of people came and eventually captured it from the people who were holding it back in August 1223. In 1224 the Order Centre was started and the first building of Viljandi Castle began. After that master Volquin led construction efforts, which are notable for being some of the most successful ever. The Livonian Order was undergoing a lot of change and reconstruction over time, with the defense of their fortress becoming a top priority. They even had military commanders appointed in 1248. A fortification was considered one of the most important designs at the time, being built out as a modern fortress only to continue being rebuilt over the next two hundred years.

The city of Hamburg rose in 1283 and is the largest medieval town in northern Germany. In ancient times, Viljandi was a bustling trade center important to the Hansa and served as an entry point for merchants traveling between Russia and Europe. It’s another fact that in 1365, the town councilors hosted a peace treaty between Denmark and Sweden when hostilities ceased.

In the Middle Ages, Viljandi was a typical small commercial town, which got its main income from the transit trade. Johann Wolthus von Herse took up residence in the castle in 1470 and it played an important role in that. Throughout the entire 1481 siege, the local trade and handicrafts were equally important. Ivan III of Russia attempted to capture the castle that year but he couldn’t even get within 50 meters of it. The decline of Viljandi began during the Livonian War and in 1560, Knyaz Andrey Kurbsky successfully took the town and destroyed the fortification.

With the Swedish dominion, Viljandi became under Swedish law. That meant the town bylaws were no longer important and the people of Viljandi had to obey them. The town of Viljandi was destroyed during a Polish-Russian war in 1620 but came back for good in the 1700s.

In the year 1783, Catherine II’s regency reforms gave a new position to Viljandi, which made it a district town. This happened because the Russians seized power in Post-Great Northern War. This political and economic decline of Viljandi led to the population’s decline to the minimum and started to rise again. This revitalized cultural life as handicrafts, trade, and more art became popular.

In 2005, the successor of the 100-year-old Viljandi Match Factory, Estonian Match, made a six-meter match. It was registered in Guinness’ Book of Records as the world’s largest match.