Fellin

Fellin (mod. Viljandi, Estonia) was a castle with an adjoining small town in Livonia, constructed on the site of an Estonian hill fort. It was located at the point where the medieval waterway from Pernau (mod. Parnu) via Dorpat (mod. Tartu) to Pskov was crossed by the road from north to south.

First besieged by the crusaders in 1211, during the subjection of the province of Sakkala (1217), Fellin developed into a center of crusader power, with improved fortifications and a church. The castle was briefly taken by an Estonian uprising, but was finally subjected to the Order of the Sword Brethren in 1223. Fellin later became a commandery of the Teutonic Order. It was regarded as one of the best-equipped and strongest castles in Livonia and housed the treasury of the Livonian branch of the order. In 1560 Fellin was conquered by Muscovite troops. In the following wars between Sweden, Poland, and Muscovy, the castle was ruined, and it lost its military importance by the beginning of the seventeenth century.

-Juhan Kreem

Bibliography

Johansen, Paul, “Lippstadt, Freckenhorst und Fellin in Livland. Werk und Wirkung Bernhards II. zur Lippe im Ostseeraum,” in Westfalen, Hanse, Ostseeraum, ed. Luise von Winterfeld (Munster: Aschendorff, 1955), pp. 95-160.

Valk, Heiki, “About the Role of the German Castle at the Town-Genesis Process in Estonia: The Example of Viljandi,” in Castella Maris Baltici 1, ed. Knud Drake (Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1993), pp. 219-223.

-, “Besieging Constructions from 1223 in Viljandi,” in

Arheoloogilised valitood Eestis / Archaeological Field Works in Estonia 2000, ed. Ulle Tamla (Tallinn: Muinsuskaitseamet, 2001), pp. 65-79.