Menüü

History of the house

The Building

In 1911, the beautiful Säde theatre and community building works were completed in the city of Valga. At the beginning of the 20th century, Valga was one of the fastest-growing and developing towns in Estonia. This was spurred by development of Valga railway junction that was started in 1889. This, in turn, also brought about increase in number of Estonians moving into Valga. Whereas previously Valga had been mainly a German-Latvian town, by the early 20th century, Estonians and Latvians lived here in almost equal numbers. This inspired the more enterprising Estonian business and intellectual community to establish their own cultural society and soon ideas of an Estonian community house became true. In 1902, the Valga Social Association Säde was founded. The society completed construction works of its own sociarty house in 1911.

The building was designed by the first professional Estonian architect, Georg Hellat (1870-1943), who also designed the main building of the Estonian Students' Society in Tartu. The building complex included a hotel, banks, businesses, shops, a restaurant, community rooms, and a theater hall with 600 seats, where the Säde Theatre operated from 1911 to 1948. The Säde Society engaged in active business activities, which allowed the promotion of Estonian-language culture in the town of Valga. Despite several devastating fires (1920, 1948, and 1988), the building is still in use, continuing to carry on Estonian cultural heritage. Since 1957, Valga Museum has been located here, and the other wing of the building houses Valga branch of the National Archives. The building acquired its current attractive appearance after the last renovation works in 1999.

 

  

Ava ostukorv