Abaja Bay is located right below Kihelkonna, facing Vilsandi. It is a quiet bay with a winding coastline, perfect for swimming. 

In 1824, the squire of Rootsiküla had opened the first Estonian medicinal mud spa in Abaja Bay. It was closed down a few years later, but at the time of Konrad Mägi’s sojourn mud baths were offered under the supervision of Dr. Hermann Valtok in small wooden sheds set up on the coast. Mägi painted the bay on several occasions.

Mägi must have become acquainted with some of the local inhabitants: in autumn 1914, he received a postcard with greetings, among others, from “Abaja Liisi” and Gretchen, a relative of the local churchwarden. For Christmas the same year he received New Year’s greetings from the “Abaja family”. Since Mägi was asked in early October 1914 how his trip to Tallinn had gone, we can assume that he stayed quite long on the island of Saaremaa in 1914: at least from the middle of May to the end of September.