Jõhvi

Jõhvi is a town of 10,000 people (2021) in East Estonia. It is the most important transport hub of the north-eastern-most county in Estonia, Ida-Virumaa.

Understand
Due to its location at the border of the country, Ida-Virumaa, or Alutaguse, has been the site of many wars. The most important architectural monument in Jõhvi is a mighty Gothic fortress built in the 13th century. In the Middle Ages, it was surrounded by a rampart and a ditch. Now, a museum for Jõhvi's fortress church is located in the vaulted cellars.

As a typical merchant center, Jõhvi town grew around a market place, which was surrounded by a tavern, post office, shops, an inn, banks and, since 1895, a Russian Orthodox church. All the roads leading to the town met at the market place, right in front of the post office. Today, a symbolic direction sign which shows distances to places from Rome to Moscow, and to all of Jõhvi's friendship towns, marks this place.

In 1917, in the midst of a revolutionary period, Jõhvi was recognised as a borough, and in 1938 it was recognised as a town. At the same time, with the development of the oil shale industry, the town grew into a metropolitan centre.

During World War II, the historic centre of Jõhvi was badly damaged.

Due to its convenient location, Jõhvi became the county centre as early as 1949. Now, besides the county government offices, most of the central institutions for the region have moved to the town, and the regional offices of many large companies are also found here. Jõhvi has become the business and financial centre of Ida-Viru county. Rapid development has given the town a youthful lifestyle. The heart of cultural life in today's Jõhvi is the concert hall and culture and hobby centre, which opened in 2005.



By bus or train
A railway and a highway connecting Tallinn to Saint Petersburg pass through the town. It is also part of the Jõhvi-Tartu-Riga highway. In this county, all roads lead to Jõhvi, as this is the only way to cross the county from one side to the other.



Bus and train schedules are easily available online – read more under Estonia.

By car
By car along the route #1 from Tallinn (160 km) and Narva (50 km), or from Tartu on the route #3 (130 km).

Get around
Jõhvi is a small town with a few cumbersome attractions that you might not need to go anywhere to inspect them. Local transport in Jõhvi is shared with its neighbour Kohtla-Järve. Their buses go mostly along Rakvere road, crossing the railway and finishing somewhere on the way towards Tartu.

Do

 * Walk around and try to imagine the described importance of this town in the past.

Go next

 * Narva – Estonia's eastern-most and third largest city, on the Narva River, which is the border with Russia. Famous for the Hermann castle, right opposite of the Ivangorod's castle, and the Kreenholm factories. Even though it might seem grey and dull.
 * Sillamäe – A beautiful coastal town in the east and formerly closed city with the best ensemble of Stalinist architecture in the entire Baltics. Built after the war with an uranium processing plant, successfully redesigned after Estonia's independence.
 * Püssi – A poor but now recovering town with an interesting artificial mountain made of ash from its oil shale power plant, which has been depositing ash in the location since the 1930s. Nowadays, the mountain is used for motocross.
 * Rakvere – An attractive city to the west, famous for its Punk and Rock festivals and spirit.
 * Tartu – Museum-rich and hanseatic city on the banks of the Emajõgi River. Also, Estonia's second-largest and oldest city, intellectual hub famous for its universities, and a lively student city. About 150 km south.
 * Kuremäe – Contains the famous Pukhitsa convent/nunnery, the only Orthodox monastery in the whole of Estonia.
 * Mustvee – A cozy fishing village at Lake Peipsi, on the way to Tartu.