Abja-Paluoja

Abja-Paluoja is a town in Mulgi Parish, Viljandi County, in southern Estonia. It received town status and became a separate urban municipality in 1993. The first documented records of the Abja manor and village date from 1457, when the place appears as Abbalis et Meitzekull. A railway line passed through the town from 1897 to 1973, with a station there, and in 1913 a flax factory was established nearby because flax cultivation had developed in the area. The Abja Gymnasium, the local secondary school, opened in 1940. Abja-Paluoja was the centre of Abja raion from 1950 to 1962, and in 1998 it was merged into the surrounding rural municipality of Abja Parish, serving as its administrative centre until 2017. Notable people connected with the town include the writer and cartoonist Karl August Hindrey, the linguist Aino Jõgi and the filmmaker Riho Västrik. A local museum occupies the historic bank and post office building.