Valga County

Valga County, in Estonian Valga maakond or Valgamaa, is a first-level administrative unit and one of the 15 counties of Estonia. It lies in the south of the country and comprises the former area of the Valga District; the present-day county was created on 1 January 1990. Its capital and largest town is Valga, followed by Tõrva and Otepää. It borders Põlva and Võru counties to the east, Latvia to the south and west, and Viljandi and Tartu counties to the north. With a population of 30,176 people as of 1 January 2014, the county covers 2,043.53 square kilometres. Its history reaches back to the 13th century and the German conquest recorded in the Livonian Chronicle of Henry. A Valga Kreis was formed from parts of the Riga and Võnnu kreises, and on 12 February 1919 the Government of the Republic of Estonia issued a regulation constituting Valga County from the territories gained in the Estonian War of Independence.