The monastic castle of Lais was built as a Teutonic fortress in the Middle Ages, but the exact time of its construction is not known. It may have existed before 1406, when it is first mentioned in historical sources, as the village itself appears in sources as early as the beginning of the 14th century. The border fortress guarded the northern section of the border between the territories of the Order of the Knights of the Sword and the Duchy of Dorpat bishops, and administratively it was subordinate to the commandery of Felin. From its initially rather marginal importance, the fortress at Lais was extensively rebuilt and adapted to the use of firearms in the 15th century (with the greater threat to Inflants from Moscow). Then, as part of the reconstruction of the fortification system, massive towers were built in the corners of the fortress. The key defensive point became the massive artillery tower on the north-western side, which was 14 m in diameter and the walls were 4 m thick. Despite this modernisation, Ivan the Terrible's army captured and partially destroyed the castle in 1559. In 1582, by virtue of the truce with Jama Zapolsky, the northernmost starosty of the Republic belonging to the Dorpat province was established in Lais (or Lajs). According to the 19th century "Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland": "The non-garden starosty of Lajs in the Duchy of Livonia, according to the crown metrics, consisted of the defensive castle of Lajs and the adjacent estates. King Stefan Batory, after the liberation of Inflants, granted this starosty to Andrzej Orzechowski for his bravery, and King Sigismund III confirmed him in possession of this starosty by a privilege of 7 November 1589". The Polish era of the management of Lais castle should be considered favourable for the development of the site. Under Starosta Andrzej Orzechowski, the demolished castle was rebuilt, and a new settlement of more than 200 people was established in the castle grounds. The settlers brought to Lais came mostly from refugees from the Swedish part of Estonia, where living conditions for the lower social groups were quite harsh. On the initiative of the Polish authorities (and probably under the influence of the then active Jesuit college in Dorpat), a wooden Catholic church and a vicarage were built in the settlement. The next Polish-Swedish war, which broke out again in 1600, soon covered Inflants. In the autumn of the same year, the Swedish army began a siege of Lais castle that lasted four weeks. The Polish garrison of castle defenders surrendered only after the death of the seriously ill starost Orzechowski. A year later, the castle was again in the hands of the Poles and remained the centre of the starosty until the winter of 1622. The final destruction of the northernmost fortress of the First Republic occurred during the Great Northern War in the early 18th century. It should be mentioned that between 1700 and 1701 the Swedish King Charles XII had his winter residence in the castle.

The ruins of Laiuse Castle are located about 3 km from the centre of today's village. In its preserved form today, the former fortress survives as an impressive but progressive ruin. In autumn 2023, construction and reconstruction work was underway on the western curtain of the ramparts. This part of the building with the centrally located entrance gate and the remains of the so-called artillery tower in the north-west corner are the best preserved part of the medieval fortress. Deciphering the layout of the former defensive layout of Lais castle is facilitated by the preserved, separately standing several metres long: the curtain of the southern wall and the relics of the tower in the north-eastern corner. The infrastructure of the former castle grounds is used for local outdoor events. During the "Polish Days" celebrations at Laiuse Castle in the summer of 2003, with the participation of representatives of the Polish Embassy from Tallinn, a ceremony was held to unveil a commemorative plaque entitled. "Polish days in Laiuse (1582 - 1622)". The existing plaque, located by the access road, just in front of the castle ruins, is another version of the plaque (the original one was destroyed). The history of the place is described in Estonian, English and Polish, illustrated with the coat of arms of the First Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth: the Polish crowned eagle and the Lithuanian Pahonia. In the south-western part of the village, in the vicinity of the parish church of St. George (now Lutheran), which has a medieval origin, there is a former local necropolis. The entrance is through a pointed brick and stone gate. The oldest gravestones date back to the 19th century, but are mostly derelict. Determining whether Polish tombstones have survived in the cemetery requires additional inventory work.