Valga is an Estonian border town that smoothly turns into the Latvian
Valka and is the only railway station through which you can get from
Estonia to Latvia. The city is rather dull, but curious for its position
on the invisible state border, as well as a military museum with a rich
exposition dedicated to the Estonian War of independence.
Valga
was first mentioned in chronicles in 1286 under the German name Valk
(Walk). In the XIV-XVI centuries. Valk was a small, fortified settlement
that was regularly destroyed due to the numerous wars between the
Livonian Order, Russian princes, Lithuanians and Poles. Finally, in
1584, the Polish king Stefan Batory granted Valga city rights, which is
now recalled by a memorial plaque. However, the status of the city and
the joy of receiving it were short—lived, since already in 1626 Valga
passed to Sweden, and after the Northern War to Russia, which was not at
all interested in the decrees of the Polish king. The city status
returned to Valga only in 1764, after which stone construction began in
it. By the beginning of the First World War, Valga became a hub station
with lines to Riga, Tartu, Pärna, Pechory. In 1919, the battle for the
Paju Manor takes place in the vicinity of Valga — one of the important
battles of the War of Independence — after which the Estonian army
captures the whole of Southern Estonia and begins an offensive into
Latvia.
Since its inception, Valga has had a multinational
character: Estonians and Latvians lived here, and with them Germans and
Russians. Estonians and Latvians got along well together, as both
experienced harassment from the Germans. Since independence, the
situation has changed, as both Estonia and Latvia have claimed the city.
In 1920, after lengthy negotiations with the participation of England,
the border was drawn directly through the city, along the small Konnaoja
stream flowing in the center of Valga. Most of the northern part went to
Estonia, and the smaller southern part to Latvia. The division turned
out to be disproportionate, since Estonia demanded compensation for the
participation of its army in the fighting in Latvia and especially for
the defeat of the rebel army of General Bermont-Avalov, who tried to
capture Riga in 1919.
Unlike Narva and Ivangorod, separated by
the river, Valga and Valka are a rare example of cities created
completely artificially. If we take into account that in Soviet times
the border did not exist, after the collapse of the USSR, many
problematic situations arose when Latvian graves turned out to be on the
territory of Estonia, and the Estonian garage climbed into Latvia with
one wall. However, after the Baltic countries joined the Schengen
Agreement, only striped columns remained from the border, and the
transition from one country to another began to occur completely
unnoticed.
The borderline (literally) location is perhaps the
most interesting feature of Valga. There are no medieval monuments or
interesting wooden buildings in the city, so Valga lacks the charm and
comfort inherent in other Estonian cities. Russian Russians account for
35% of the population of Valga, and almost everyone knows Russian,
because it is the language of interethnic communication between
residents of Estonia and Latvia. The city has light industry (furniture,
clothing and footwear, woodworking), life at the railway station is
warm, but the overall economic situation is quite bleak, and this can be
seen with the naked eye: Valga is one of the poorest county towns in
Estonia.
The Tourist Information Center is located on the central
square in the Town Hall (Mon–Fri 10:00 – 16:00). Here you can learn
about the sights of the city and the entire Valgamaa county.
1 Town Hall (Raekoda), Kesk 11. The Town Hall was built in 1865 and
is the oldest wooden building in Valga. It is impressive, but not very
beautiful, and is an example of early Estonian architecture — a period
when no one had yet thought about the peculiarities of the national
style.
2 St. Jan's Church (Jaani kirik), Kesk väljak. The stone
church in the center of Valga was built for 30 years, from 1787 to 1816,
which probably led to some mixing of rapidly changing architectural
styles: the building has traces of classicism and Baroque, although the
latter is still more. The oval shape of the church and the location of
the bell tower are also unusual, not at the end, but on the side of the
building. From a distance, the church can easily be mistaken for a
concert hall or a theater. The guidebooks proudly point out that there
is no other such church in Estonia — and this is the pure truth.
Moreover, in other countries, they probably didn't build it that way
either. There is a memorial plaque on the north wall of the church in
memory of the Finnish volunteers who participated in the battle for the
Pai Manor.
3 Library (Keskraamatukogu), Aia 12. The library building
was built in 1902 as a manor house, so a park and a small pond, unusual
for the urban environment, have been preserved nearby. It is difficult
to determine the style of the structure: it is quite an original project
that would not be lost even in the capital city.
4 Catholic Chapel
(Katoliku kabel), Riia 16. The "Booth" next to the parking lot of the
Rimi supermarket is (or at least was) a Catholic chapel — the oldest
building in the city. Although there has been no dome or cross on it for
a long time, and the shutters on the windows are very reminiscent of a
village store, the building is not without grace and is especially
memorable for its four-pitched roof.
5 The Orthodox Church (Sigeusu
kirik), Pargi 2. It was built in 1897-98 and is decidedly uninteresting
from an architectural point of view, although it is pretty and quite
spacious inside. The church has two thrones consecrated in honor of the
Kazan Icon of the Mother of God and Isidore Yurievsky, a priest from
Yuriev (Tartu), who was killed for refusing to convert to Catholicism.
6 Church of the Holy Spirit (Pühavaimu kirik), Maleva 8. A beautiful
Neo-Gothic church built of huge stones with "layers" of brick: a
technique familiar to the entire Baltic States and even the Pskov
region, but found quite rarely in church architecture. It was built in
1907 on the initiative of local Catholics, including Poles and
Lithuanians who worked on the railway. According to rumors, the church
does not have a bell tower due to a ban by the tsarist government.
7
German cemetery and memorial, at the end of Roheline Street. From 1941
to 1944, there was a German concentration camp (Stalag 351) on the
northern outskirts of Valga, which after the liberation of Estonia
became a camp for German prisoners, and in the late 40s the NKVD began
to use it for punitive purposes. A sad place, located, as it often
happens in the Baltic States, in the middle of the purest pine forest.
There is a laconic Soviet memorial with a figure of a crying woman and
the inscription "People, be vigilant!" in Estonian and Russian. A
hundred meters away is a neat German cemetery.
The urban development
of Valga is mostly mediocre. The ceremonial stone buildings built on the
central streets at the beginning of the XX century, during the heyday of
the city, are unusual here. Pay attention to the neoclassical building
of the German bank — now the board of Valgamaa county (1912, Kesk 12),
the building of the Museum of local lore with sparse signs of Art
Nouveau (1911, Vabaduse 6-8) and the much more charming gymnasium
building (Vabaduse 13) — also in the Art Nouveau style. But the most
interesting building of Valga is hidden on a completely unpalatable
(albeit central) Kuperjanovi street, where an abandoned mansion
(Kuperjanovi 12) is located — a reference example of Riga Art Nouveau,
which accidentally fell into a remote Estonian province. With the
exception of a few houses around the town hall, the wooden architecture
of Valga is not interesting, and in general there are more panel
five-storey buildings here than wooden houses. In the eastern part of
the city, you can find a rather curious building of the Pentecostal
church (Kungla 34) in the Art Deco style and, not far from it, several
pre-revolutionary factory buildings (Maleva 5).
The border with
Latvia looks ordinary — there are a couple of shopping malls facing
Latvia from the Estonian side, and there is nothing at all on the
Latvian side, even there are no welcome signs. Fences, gates, barbed
wire and other attributes of the border have completely disappeared. The
most interesting thing is to cross this almost invisible border along
Sõpruse Street, where a boarded-up booth and a sign calling for carrying
a passport have been preserved. If you wish, you can walk along the
stream and the border posts to the notorious trespasser garage (Viljandi
35 — in the northern part of the city), but you will not find anything
particularly interesting there: except that the amount of devastation on
the border is slightly above average.
Military Museum (Museum of Patriotic Education), Pikk 16a. ☎ +372
(76) 7-11-27. Mon–Fri 9:00 – 16:00, Sat 10:00 – 16:00. €2 (2014). The
Military Museum has two hypostases — military and patriotic. The
military is represented by a collection of weapons and uniforms, while
the patriotic one is represented by stands about the work of Estonian
firefighters and police on the example of the events of the "bronze
night" in Tallinn. Somewhere between these two extremes there is an
extensive exposition dedicated to the Estonian army of the First
Republic and especially the War of Independence. There is a lot of
information — uniforms, insignia, biographies of heroes immortalized in
the names of Estonian streets — and photos, photos, photos.
Unfortunately, the texts are only in Estonian, so history lovers will
have to book a tour in advance in Russian, English or German (€9.60).
However, it is interesting to come here without a tour, at least for
ethnographic reasons, since the museum was created on pure enthusiasm
and is curious about this already. And it also presents monuments of
modern history: a wooden cannon created by Estonian volunteers in 1989
for lack of normal weapons (it looks like the 17th century, no less); a
hut that (for lack of better housing) was used by Estonian border guards
in the early years of independence; a T-34 tank installed in Soviet
times time in the vicinity of Valga and blown up in 1990 by Estonian
nationalists. The hut and the tank already belong to the outdoor
exhibition, which can be partially seen from behind the fence without
entering the museum. Finally, take a look at the museum store, where
helmets, flasks and other items from the war are sold.
Local History
Museum (Valga Muuseum), Vabaduse 8. ☎ +372 (76) 6-88-63. Wed–Fri 11:00 –
18:00, Sat 10:00 – 15:00. €2 (2014). An ordinary museum of local lore,
starting with archeology and ending with the declaration of
independence. Of interest are the exposition about the life of Valga at
the beginning of the XX century (Valga is proud that it was here that an
Estonian, not a German, was first elected mayor of the city) and an
exhibition dedicated to railways.
Railway station / Bus station. 6:00 – 20:00. It is located one
kilometer south-east of the city center. The station building was built
in 1949 and is decorated with a ribbed rectangular tower: from an
architectural point of view, this is the most interesting station in
Estonia, which is no coincidence, because it is in Valga that the lines
to Tartu-Tallinn and Pskov-Pechory converge (the latter is now
practically unused). The building has been completely renovated inside,
passengers have access to one hall with two rows of benches, an
electronic scoreboard, a toilet and an occasionally working ticket
office (Mon–Fri 9:00 – 18:00, break 13:00 – 14:00) selling bus tickets.
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Three diesel trains arrive to Valga daily from Tallinn (3.5-4
hours, from Tartu 1 hour 15 minutes) and the same number from Riga (3
hours 15 minutes, via Sigulda, Cesis, Valmiera). The bus service is
slightly more active: 6-8 times a day buses leave for Tartu (1.5-2
hours) and, with the same frequency, via Viljandi (1.5 hours) to Tallinn
(4 hours). There are direct buses to Narva, Parna and even Kuressaare,
but it is easier to go there with a transfer. Local communication with
Otep and Elva, but it is almost impossible to go directly to Vyra or
Pylva: you will have to transfer to Tartu. Buses to Latvia depart from
the Valka bus station. Buses from St. Petersburg to Riga (three times a
day), on the contrary, stop at the Valgi bus station (Estonia), not
Valki (Latvia), and get to Riga in 2.5-3 hours.
By car, Valga can
be reached via highways 3 and 6, from Tartu (85 km), Viljandi (80 km)
and Pärnu (141 km). 235 km from Tallinn (via Viljandi). From Riga 160 km
along the A3 highway.
There are 2 bus lines in Valga connecting the city center (town hall
square) with the outskirts. Travel interval: 1-1.5 hours, fare: €1
(€0.60 when buying a ticket at a kiosk). There are no buses to the
Latvian part of the city.
The axis of the Volga can be considered
the central Kesk Street with a narrow boulevard in the middle, which
adjoins Riia Street on the west side, leading to the border with Latvia.
The border itself is located one block from the city hall. In the east,
Kesk turns into Vabaduse and Kuperjanovi streets. From the south and
north, the center is bounded by a railway and a cascade of ponds:
everything beyond them can be safely considered the outskirts. The
distances are small, the main facilities are within walking distance.
1 Kaubakeskus, Vabaduse 2/4. Mon–Fri 9:00 – 18:00, Sat 9:00 – 16:00,
Sun 9:00 – 15:00. A department store, mostly clothes.
2 Kukemarket,
Kuperjanovi 62. 9:00 – 21:00. A small grocery supermarket somewhere on
the outskirts, on the way to the memorial.
3 Maxima, Jaama pst. 2b.
8:00 – 22:00. Just a big supermarket.
4 Rimi, Riia 18.
8:00 – 22:00. One of the shopping malls on the border. In addition to
the grocery supermarket, there is a fast food Hesburger (9:00 - 22:00,
the only food option on weekend mornings) and some other shops – for
example, bicycle sales.
5 Selver, Raja 5. 9:00 – 22:00. The second
border shopping center occupies the territory of a former winery and
stands side by side with one of the abandoned old buildings, which is
gradually being destroyed, giving the whole panorama a surreal hue,
especially when viewed from Latvia.
1 Conspirator Baar , Vabaduse 29. ☎ +372 5343-0333. Sun–Thu 12:00 –
22:00, Fri–Sat 12:00 – 2:00. Hot dishes: €5-7 (2014). It looks more like
a restaurant than a bar. You don't have to wait for any special
alcoholic drinks or cocktails here, but the list of hot dishes takes up
two pages in small print. Cozy and inexpensive.
2 Korean bar Horan,
Kesk 16. ☎ +372 (76) 4-16-55. Sun–Thu 12:00 – 21:00, Fri–Sat 12:00 –
22:00.
3 Lilli, Kuperjanovi 6. ☎ +372 (76) 6-35-09, +372 515-95-61.
Mon–Thu 12:00 – 18:00, Fri–Sat 12:00 – 21:00. Pasta: €4.50, hot dishes:
€6-9 (2013). By all indications, this is a restaurant, and the only one
in the city, but the opening hours are more like a cafe or even a
cafeteria.
4 Mammi Köök, Vabaduse 2/4. ☎ +372 (76) 7-95-44. Mon–Fri
10:00 – 15:00. The dining cafeteria.
Metsis, Kuperjanovi 63. ☎ +372
(76) 6-60-50, +372 56-23-0110. Mon–Fri 11:00 – 23:00, Sat 12:00 –
23:00. Hot dishes: €9-13 (2014). The restaurant at the hotel of the same
name is decorated like a hunting castle, skins and deer antlers are hung
on the walls. The food is cooked in the French style, so here is the
only opportunity in the city to eat exquisitely and elegantly.
5 Riia, Riia 14. ☎ +372 766-38-74. Mon–Sat 9:00 – 18:00. Pizza: €3-5,
pancakes: €2, hot dishes: €3 (2014). A simple but nice cafeteria on the
very border with Latvia. There are more than a dozen varieties of pizza
on the menu, as many pancakes and slightly fewer hot dishes. There is
also a large selection of cakes.
6 Voorimehi Pubi , Kuperjanovi
57. ☎ +372 (76) 7-96-27. Sun–Tue 12:00 – 24:00, Wed 12:00 – 2:00, Thu
12:00 – 24:00, Fri–Sat 12:00 – 3:00. Hot dishes: €6-8 (2014). The choice
of hot dishes leaves much to be desired, but late at night this pub
becomes one of the few places where you can eat. There are discos on
weekends.
Exotica , Turu 6. ☎ +372 55-333-69. Fri–Sat 23:00 – 4:00. A
nightclub.
Yes! , Tolli 1. ☎ +372 52-355-15. Fri–Sat 22:00 – 4:00.
A nightclub adjacent to the Tolli Hostel.
1 Aare Majutus, Kungla 46 (15 min from the train station). ☎ +372
(76) 6-11-61. Double room: €44, tent in the yard: €8 (2014). A guest
house on the western outskirts of Valga. It's a good environment, but
don't expect much comfort. For independent tourists, there is a very
cheap option that allows you to set up a tent on the territory, after
which you can use the shower and toilet. Breakfast, Wi-Fi.
2 Helge
Guest House, Lepa 26 (northern outskirts). ☎ +372
5559-9994. Double/Triple: €28/41 (2014). A private guest house located
somewhere on the outskirts of Valga. Good reviews. Wi-Fi.
3 Maria
Hostel, Mesipuu 1 (center). ☎ +372 504-23-92. Double/triple/quadruple:
€24/30/40 (2014). A hostel with rooms for 1-4 people. The situation
resembles a dormitory, there is one bathroom for everyone, and both the
shower and the toilet are in one place here. However, the hostel is
rarely full, so there shouldn't be any problems. There is a kitchen, if
necessary, breakfast is prepared for €3. The front door is usually
closed, call the phone written on the sign. Wi-Fi.
4 Metsis,
Kuperjanovi 63. ☎ +372 (76) 6-60-50, +372 5623-0110. Single/double:
€53/65 (2014). A beautiful modern hotel, rooms with all amenities.
Wi-Fi. It is located not in the very center, but relatively close.
5
Tolli Hostel, Tolli 1 (in the north of the city next to the highway). ☎
+372 (76) 4-08-53. €20/ people (2014). The center of Valga's nightlife,
it is here that the only nightclub in the city is located. Rooms with
facilities for 2-4 people. Judging by the reviews, it is tolerable, but
uncomfortable and sometimes not very clean. There is a free gym for
guests, which is recommended before going to the disco.
Mail, Kesk 10. Mon–Fri 9:00 – 18:00, Sat 10:00 – 13:00.
Wireless Internet can be found in several city cafes. Computers with
Internet access should be in the information center (town hall
building) and in the library.