Tõrva is a town in Valga County, Estonia. The administrative
center of Tõrva parish. Not far from Tõrva is the Helme Order
Castle. During the Cold War, Tõrva airbase was located here.
In 1950-1959 it was the center of the Tõrva region.
Concert Hall (Former Orthodox Church). The building was built by the
Russian Orthodox Church in 1903-1905 at the expense of the Russian
Empire. The builder was Karl Šurin. The church had two domes and a bell
tower. On December 28, 1905, the solemn consecration of the church took
place under the name of the Apostolic Orthodox Church of the Nativity in
Helme-Tõrva. In September 1944, the roof of the church and the bell
tower were hit, as a result of which the upper part of the tower
collapsed a few months later, destroying the roof of the church. In the
following years, the destroyed building served as a laundry and cement
warehouse of the cooperative, as an ice cellar of the dairy and as a
gymnasium. After a restoration, the building has been used as a concert
hall since 1997
Koit Cinema. The building, built in the style of
Socialist Classicism, was opened in 1953 as a cinema and is now used as
a multifunctional cultural center.
Monument to the soldiers who died
in the Estonian War of Independence. It is located next to the Tõrva
Gymnasium in the park at Lake Puiestee 1. The monument was designed by
sculptor Aleksander Eller and modeled as a bronze statue. The stonework
was carried out by the stonemason Richard Toomingas. The monument was
inaugurated on October 14, 1928. During the Soviet occupation, it was
demolished in 1940 and rebuilt on June 23, 1990.
Helme is considered the oldest
parish in Estonia.
The first written mention of Helme parish
itself dates back to 1329.
An Estonian settlement was found
on the Dance Hill, located in the north of the city, which is
considered the center of activity of the ancient people in all of
southern Sakala. In 1930, the teacher of the Tõrva gymnasium, Ernst
Karolin, discovered a fortress on the same hill, presumably from the
12th to 13th centuries. Nowadays, the area around the castle is a
popular destination for summer entertainment.
The first written mentions of Tõrva date back to 1834, according to
other sources - to [1839] at (Törwa, tavern). Then there was a
tavern at the intersection of the Valga-Pärnu-Tartu roads. It was
originally a wooden house, but after the fire in 1890, a stone
building was built in its place. Currently, the former tavern has
been restored and is considered one of the symbols of the city.
In 1871, Alexander Oskar von Strick, owner of Helme manor and
Patküla village, who owned the forest surrounding the inn, began
selling land. The first houses were erected at the intersection of
the present Melnichnaya, Viljandiskaya and Tartu streets in
1875-1892.
The growth of the settlement took place in
parallel with the growth of the peasant economy. The area around the
tavern became a center for hiring peasants and shepherds for the
Helme landlords, and fairs were regularly held here. In 1890-1892,
there were several dozen houses in Tyrva and the settlement had 400
inhabitants; by 1909, Tõrva already had 150 houses and 1750
inhabitants.
In 1892, the Tõrva Voluntary Social Society was
founded, the buildings of which became the centers of social and
cultural life in the vicinity of the city. In 1904 Helme's Savings
and Borrowing Society was founded, which became one of the first
financial institutions in Estonia. In 1908, the Helme-Tõrva
Educational Society was founded, which received 454 books for the
library and 517 rubles from the Art and Vocal Company. August Krimm,
head of the Helme parish school, and Jaak Parik, writer, were chosen
as the first chairmen of the Educational Society and curators of the
books. The library opened on December 20, 1909.