Estonia Valga County FDC

Estonia FDC
Name: Valga County (Definitive Issue)
Issue date: 07 February 2008

Valga County (Estonian: Valgamaa) lies in southern Estonia and as it has a common border of 101 kilometres with Latvia, it is deservedly called the south gate of Estonia. The landscape is picturesque and changing – there are flat areas, moraine heights, big forests, numerous scenic lakes and winding rivers. The territory of the county is 2,046 square kilometres and it had 35,000 inhabitants at the beginning of 2008. The Valga County in its present boundaries was formed in 1920 of the town of Valga and parts of the neighbouring counties. This makes the county quite an exciting place – you can find in it cultural influences of Tartu County, as well as dialectal and cultural features of both southern Viljandi County and of the Võru area. But the past of the historical Valgamaa goes back much farther – to the time of Empress Catherine II who issued a ukase on 3 July 1873 by which the present Valga County was formed of the northeastern parts of the Riga and Cesis counties. Valga County and the town of Valga have always been seen as the focal point of Livonia, where people used to meet to settle important matters. Valgamaa is a county with a venerable past, and thanks to its attractiveness it is a pleasant place to rest, to live and to work. The Estonian-Latvian town of Valga-Valka was granted a city charter by King Stefan Batory of Poland back in 1584, the Helme-Tõrva area is the location of the singular mausoleum of the Russian army leader Barclay de Tolly, while Otepää, often called the Pearl of Estonia, is known far and wide as a ski resort.