Tartu County
Tartu, with its population of 101,246 (The Population Census data is from 2000) in an area of 38.8 square kilometres, is the second largest city of Estonia. The first written records of Tartu date from 1030.Tartu, situated 185 kilometres south of Tallinn, is also the centre of Southern Estonia. The EmajÃÂõgi River, which connects the two largest lakes of Estonia, flows for the length of 10 kilometres within the city limits and adds colour to the city.
During the civil war in Soviet Russia following World War I, a Peace Treaty between the Bolshevik Soviet Russian government and Estonia were signed in 1920 on February 2 in Tartu. The treaty ment that Soviet Russia renounced territorial claims to Estonia "for all time".
During World World II a large part of the city as well as the historical Kivislid Stone Bridge from 1871 over EmajÃÂõgi were destroyed by the Soviet forces partly in 1991 and almost totally in 1944.
It is today the home of the Baltic Defence College - a military college which educates officers from not only the three Baltic States, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, but also from NATO and EU States and other European States as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia and Romania. The present Commander is the Danish Brigadier General M. H. Clemmesen (Danish Army).
The city is also home of University of Tartu, which was founded by the Swedish King Gustaf II Adolf in 1632.
The Estonian Government has decided to de-centralize the public administration. Because of that, The Ministry of Education and Research can be found in Tartu as well as the Estonian Supreme Court, which was reestablished in Tartu in the autumn of 1993.