Võrumaa (german: Kreis Werro; vro, Võromaa) was a historical county in
Estonia
Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...
. The historical Võrumaa includes the areas of the present counties of
Võru
Võru (; vro, Võro; german: Werro) is a town and a municipality in south-eastern Estonia. It is the capital of Võru County and the centre of Võru Parish.
History
Võru was founded on 21 August 1784, according to the wish of the Empress Cather ...
,
Põlva
Põlva () is a town in southeastern Estonia, the capital of Põlva County, and the centre of Põlva Parish.
Põlva is home for the Intsikurmu Song Festival Grounds, which regularly hosts concerts and summer activities, situated in a small for ...
,
Valga and
Tartu
Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after the Northern European country's political and financial capital, Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 91,407 (as of 2021). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast of ...
.
Regions of Estonia
Historical regions in Estonia
Ancient period
The center of the settlement of Võrumaa is the banks of the
Võhandu river. The first settlements in Võrumaa were
Kääpa and Villal on the shores of
Lake Tamula, the oldest of which is Kääpa, where people lived as early as the first half of the third millennium BCE.
In the Middle and Early Iron Age, in southeastern Estonia
Ugandi County
Ugandi (Latin: ''Ungannia'' or ''Ugaunia''; lv, Ugaunija; Low German: ''Uggn'') was an independent county between the east coast of Lake Võrtsjärv and west coast of Lake Pskov, bordered by Vaiga, Mõhu, Nurmekund, Sakala, Tālava, and ...
was formed.
Middle ages
In the 13th century, the
Livonian Brothers of the Sword
german: Schwertbrüderordenfrench: Ordre des Chevaliers Porte-Glaive
, image=
, caption=
, dates=1204–1237
, country= Terra Mariana
, allegiance= Catholic Church
, garrison= Wenden (Cēsis), Fellin (Viljandi), Segewold (Sigulda). Aschera ...
invaded the territories of Latvia and Estonia; The army defeated Ugandi in 1224. After the conquest, the was formed in Ugandi. During the diocese, the and
Vastseliina fortress were built in the Võrumaa area for border protection against the Russians.
During the
Livonian War
The Livonian War (1558–1583) was the Russian invasion of Old Livonia, and the prolonged series of military conflicts that followed, in which Tsar Ivan the Terrible of Russia (Muscovy) unsuccessfully fought for control of the region (pre ...
, from 1558 to 1583, the area of Võrumaa was under the rule of the Grand Duchy of Moscow , but in 1582, Estonian Jam Zapolski remained under Polish rule.
Russian empire
During the
Great Northern War
The Great Northern War (1700–1721) was a conflict in which a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the anti-Swedi ...
(1700–1721), Võrumaa came under the rule of the
Tsardom of Russia
The Tsardom of Russia or Tsardom of Rus' also externally referenced as the Tsardom of Muscovy, was the centralized Russian state from the assumption of the title of Tsar by Ivan IV in 1547 until the foundation of the Russian Empire by Peter I i ...
in 1704.
See also
*
*
References
{{Võrumaa
Geography of Estonia
History of Estonia