Pidula Manor

The rooms have a really nice interior, and the location is pleasant. You’ll need a car to make the most of the places around here, though free buses run to kuressaare and kihelkonna.

Pidula’s estate park also holds the ancient Pidula Castle, whose ramparts may have been partly rebuilt by the heritage-minded von Tolls. Several outbuildings remain too, including a barn with four-sided stone pillars. The main building’s cellars were filled in for a time, then uncovered and opened in 2004-2005. They may be older than the building itself, perhaps dating to the Middle Ages. The building had stood empty and run down before its recent years of private ownership, when it was renovated and restored. It’s a simple, one-story stone house in Baroque style, likely built in 1728, shortly after the Great Northern War. The two-column portico and the outbuilding to the right were added in the 19th century, and one room still has a ceiling with Baroque beams. Joachim Stracke founded the estate here at the end of the 16th century. The von Stackelbergs owned it from the 17th century until 1772, followed by the noble von Toll family until the estate was transferred in 1919. Bernhard von Toll was its last owner.

The hotel “host” was rude. He came into my room a couple of times during the night and didn’t believe me. They said they’d refund the money, but I still haven’t received it. Stay away!

Pidula Manor is about 11 km from Kihelkonna toward Mustjala, beside one of Saaremaa’s most popular hiking trails. Its proportions and decorative details have led historians and art critics to call it Estonia’s most beautiful Baroque house. It was thought to have been built in the mid-18th century, with the rear extension added in the early 19th century. The facade has narrow eaves, dolomite block corners, and a low portico with two columns at the entrance. The manor makes most sense alongside its regularly laid out Baroque park. The crossing paths point toward an artificial rise several meters high, ringed by the embankments of Pidula fort. Pidula was regarded as Saaremaa’s oldest known medical facility. A chronicle from 1240 says the Knights of the Order built a hospital on the island’s western coast, near a harbor that was visited once a year. The area’s name may come from “pidal,” itself derived from “pidalitõbe” (“leprosy”), perhaps referring to that hospital. The protected Pidula watermill is about 1.5 km from the manor, toward Kihelkonna. It’s a two-story structure made partly of wood and partly of stone, completed in 1809.