Rapla County

Raplamaa and Järvamaa share the place at the heart of Estonia. Neither of these two counties border with sea or neighbouring countries. Instead, Raplamaa is criss-crossed by the borders of nature, language and culture. Rapla County is divided into two parts by border of dialects: the region of middle dialect, where the dialect the current written Estonian is based on originated, and the region of west dialect.
Rapla County has also been named the Bedroom of Tallinn, since the capital of Estonia is fairly close. Beautiful nature and relatively peaceful living environment attract many people from the capital who are tired of the noisy city to establish their homes here. The same happened a few centuries ago when manors were born. Historians specialized in manors, value the unique architecture of these manor houses, according to which they distinguish the golden circle of Raplamaa manors.
Throughout history, and also during Estonia’s re-independence, the local region and people have always reflected the development of Estonia. Kaitseliit (Defence Union) was first re-established here and the development of village movement or ecotourism, which has now grown over the entire country, started first in Raplamaa.
The coldest place in Estonia in the winter is here, in Kuusiku, in the rural municipality of Rapla. Those coming from the capital of Tallinn will notice two silvery steeples about 7 km before reaching Rapla. This is the church of Maarja Magdaleena which was built in 1901. It is the only country church to have two towers, foreigners have also called it a cathedral.
Rapla was first mentioned in the Danish landbook in 1241 as Rapala, this has now formed into the name Rapla, which stands for three governing units: rural municipality, town and a county.  More than 37 000 inhabitants live in the county at present and the area of the county is nearly 3000 square kilometres.
Raplamaa’s nature is best characterised by vast bog-areas and thick forests. Most of the county is in the limestone region. In the rural municipality of Märjamaa, very fragile alvar spruce forests are growing on the limestone outcrop, which are very rare in the whole world. In the rural municipalities of Kaiu and Rapla are located Estonia’s biggest karst caves.
Raplamaa’s highlights on the culture landscape would definitely be Rapla Church Music Festival, International Varbola Puu (Timber) Days, but also rock festivals like Rabarokk, Kaparokk, Linna Pea Rokk and Vigala Hard Rock.