Elva, Estonia
| Elva | |||
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| Town and municipality | |||
Elva town hall
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 Elva
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| Coordinates: 58°13′28″N 26°25′16″E / 58.22444°N 26.42111°ECoordinates: 58°13′28″N 26°25′16″E / 58.22444°N 26.42111°E | |||
| Country |
 Estonia
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| County |
 Tartu County
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| Town rights | 1 May 1938 | ||
| Area | |||
| • Total | 9.92 km2 (3.83 sq mi) | ||
| Population (01.01.2013) | |||
| • Total | 5,607 | ||
| • Density | 570/km2 (1,500/sq mi) | ||
| Ethnicity | |||
| • Estonians | 95.3% | ||
| • Russians | 2% | ||
| • other | 2.7% | ||
| Website | www.elva.ee | ||
Elva is a town and a municipality in Tartu County, Estonia. It has a population of 5,607 (as of 1 January 2013) and an area of 9.92 km².
Elva has two larger lakes. Lake Verevi has a sandy and well-developed beach area that is very popular in the summer and is host to many outdoor events. Lake Arbi has wet reed grown shores. Elva's largest employer (and in all of southern Estonia) is Enics Eesti AS, subsidiary of Enics Group, providing electronics manufacturing services in industrial electronics. Elva has one school, Elva Gümnaasium, offering education from 1st grade to high school graduation.
A dominant element in Elva is the train station which today is a visitors' information center and which used to be an important trade route in the past centuries.
Detailed information on hikes on foot or by bicycle can be obtained from the visitors' information center. The Elva river, with old water mill sites and rapid banks, is popular for canoeing. In winter skiers can participate in the Tartu Marathon, belonging to the Worldloppet series. Its 60 km track from Otepää to Elva can be cycled through on mountain bikes in summer.
Elva was founded soon after the completion of Tartu-Valga train route that was built from 1886 to 1889. Elva was first mentioned in an Estonian newspaper in 1889.
Elva is named after the Elva river that has been mentioned in books already in the 17th century.
In 1913 a two grade school was opened.
On 1 May 1938 Elva became a town.
The town center was heavily damaged in the Second World War. In July 1941 Elva was liberated by the Forest Brothers. In August 1944 surroundings of Elva became a bloody battlefield between Hyazinth von Strachwitz's Panzer brigade and the Red Army.
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Wikipedia