The story of Haapsalu Castle

On full-moon nights in August, legend says, a maiden appears in the window of the baptistery chapel here: the White Lady. The story tells of a canon who fell in love with an Estonian girl and secretly brought her into the castle, where women were forbidden on pain of death. She hid disguised as a choirboy, until a visiting bishop grew suspicious.

His council ordered her walled up in the chapel with a piece of bread and a mug of water, and the canon was starved to death in prison. Her soul, it is said, still grieves here, and the White Lady Days music festival is held at the August full moon. The castle itself was founded in the 13th century as the seat of the Bishopric of Ösel-Wiek and reached its final size, more than 30,000 square metres, under Bishop Johannes IV Kievel.

Its cathedral, built in 1260, is the biggest single-naved church in the Baltic countries, with vaults 15.5 metres high.