Venue
The summer school will be held at Arensburg Boutique Hotel & Spa in Kuressaare.
Kuressaare (pop. 16000) is the main town on Saaremaa, the second-largest island of the Baltic Sea. Kuressaare is a charming seaside resort on the shores of the Gulf of Riga highly popular with Estonians as well as visitors to Estonia.
Kuressaare is located at a prehistoric trading site that became the foothold of the Bishopric Ösel-Wiek. In about 1380 the new castle- fortification also became the residence of the bishop. During the Danish rule, Kuressaare (Arensburg) was granted the rights of a town in 1563 by Duke Magnus. The most outstanding buildings of the old town are the 17th century town hall and weigh house. The municipal park with the Kurhaus are from the end of the 19th century. The first mud-bath institution was started in 1840, but it was only in the 1880s when there were already three such establishments that Kuressaare became a real resort town.
Saaremaa (Ösel) is the largest among the 1500 islands of Estonia. Overall, islands form about 10 per cent of Estonia's territory.
To get to Kuressaare, one normally passes through Tallinn (pop. 402000), Estonia's capital city. Tallinn is famous for its picturesque medieval Old Town, inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List.
From Tallinn, Kuressaare is easily reached by scheduled coach (incl. a ferry ride). The organisers will arrange chartered coaches from Tallinn to Kuressaare and back for VISPP'2008 participants (see travel pages for details).
There are, however, also twice-daily flights to Kuressaare from Tallinn and twice-weekly flights from Stockholm.
Please consult our travel info pages.
Last changed January 21, 2008 17:23 EET by local organizers, vispp2008(at)phon.ioc.ee
