A Bath in Mud: The Beginnings of Saaremaa’s Spa Culture

Before Kuressaare became the legendary “mud capital,” the story began on the western coast of Saaremaa, near the village of Kihelkonna. In 1785, enlightened physician Johann Wilhelm Ludwig von Luce purchased the Lahetaguse manor and became fascinated with the healing properties of folk medicine. One of his interests was therapeutic mud, discovered near Tori islet and the shores of Kihelkonna Bay. To investigate further, he invited Riga district physician David Grindel, who concluded that the dark, pungent “schlamm” was effective in treating skin diseases, gout, rheumatism, and various catarrhs.

As a result, in 1824, Baron Carl Friedrich von Buxhoeveden established the first known mud spa in Estonia — a modest wooden hut on the shore of Abaja farm, located on the edge of Vilsandi National Park, near the village of Kihelkonna. The hut had four wooden tubs filled with hot stones and mud, and patients bathed under medical supervision.

Later, the idea of mud therapy spread to Kuressaare. Mud was scooped from the shores of Suurlaht (Great Bay), loaded into buckets and transported by boats to bathing establishments. In 1840, carpenter Jakob Georg Weise built the first small bathhouse in Kuressaare — most likely near Suurlaht and the Episcopal Castle, where larger spa buildings were later concentrated. Initially, only about ten visitors came per year, but by 1850 the number had grown to several hundred. The facility expanded, each room had its own wooden tub, and mud baths cost between 30–50 kopecks depending on strength. After the course of mud treatments, patients were guided into cold seawater baths.

M. Jakobson, "Lifting curative mud at Kuressaare municipal mud spa", photo archive, Estonian History Museum.

Thanks to the dedication of local doctors and enterprising citizens, Kuressaare grew into an international resort town, attracting health-seekers from Riga, St. Petersburg, and even Port Arthur — a port city in the Far East of the Russian Empire, today known as Lüshun, located on the Yellow Sea coast of northeastern China. The island’s mud gained a fine reputation, becoming part of the earliest spa traditions in Estonia.