page_title: Valga County
section_title: Early Modern Period
hierarchical_section_title: Valga County / History / Early Modern Period
caption_attribution_description: Eesti: Taagepera mõisa peahoone, ehitatud 1907-1912.English: Taagepera manor main building, built in 1907-1912. This is a photo of cultural heritage monument of Estonia number 23098.
context_page_description: Valga County, or Valgamaa is a first-level administrative unit and one of 15 counties of Estonia. It comprises the former area of Valga District. The present-day county was created on 1 January 1990. The capital and largest town of Valga County is Valga, followed by Tõrva and Otepää. It is situated in the southern part of the country and borders Põlva and Võru County to the east, Latvia to the south and west, and Viljandi and Tartu County to the north. 29,944 people live in Valga County.
context_section_description: City rights were given to Valga by a Polish King Stefan Batory in 1584.
  On the 3rdof July, 1783, the Empress Catherine II established a new administration order in the Baltic provinces. A new kreis (county), Valga Kreis, was constituted mainly from the territories of Riga and Võnnu Kreises. Valga Town which formerly belonged to Riga Kreis, went over to Valga Kreis. Valga Kreis consisted of eleven parishes, nine of them located on the present Latvian territory, and just two – Luke (Lugaži in Latvian, Luhde in German) and Härgmäe (Ērģeme in Latvian, Ermes in German) – had an edge on the present Estonian area, mostly near Valga, which became an attraction centre of the new kreis.
  In 1789, there were 891 citizens in Valga. As Valga became the centre of the kreis, St John's Church was founded and also the building of kreis institutions was built in 1783-1786 (later it became a prison).
caption: The main building of Taagepera Manor (built in 1907-1912)
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