Rapla
Town in Estonia
Rapla (German: Rappel (the name Rappel was also used in other languages in the past) is a town in north-central Estonia, the capital of Rapla County and the centre of Rapla Parish.
Rapla's population was 5,209 in 2026.
01History
The oldest records date back to 1241 in the Danish Census Book, when it was said that it was a small village with 8 acres of cultivated fields. By the end of the 13th century, the village centre was firmly established. At around the same time, a Cistercian monastery was built.
Rapla's ambitious period of fast growth began only in the late 19th century. In 1866, a pharmacy was built, in 1868 a school, and in 1888 a hospital. In 1898, a brick factory was opened, and in 1900, a railway line was built between Rapla and Viljandi. The old stone church was demolished in the late 19th century and a new one was built in a Romanesque style, one of the purest examples of this style in all of Estonia.
In 1913, Rapla consisted of around 20 stone and 60 wooden houses. During this time period, a number of social societies were established, such as the Volunteer Fire Company, the Song and Music Society, the Society of Agriculture, a Mutual Fire Insurance Company, a Consumer Association, and the Deposit Insurance Fund.
It has a railway station on the Tallinn, Viljandi railway line operated by Elron. In 1931, a narrow gauge railway from Rapla to Virtsu opened and remained in use until 1968.
Rapla received town rights in 1993.
02Demographics
| Ethnicity | 1934 | 1959 | 1970 | 1979 | 1989 | 2000 | 2011 | 2021 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| amount | % | amount | % | amount | % | amount | % | amount | % | amount | % | amount | % | amount | % | |
| Estonians | 975 | 98.1 | 2462 | 80.1 | 3998 | 91.0 | 5070 | 90.6 | 5647 | 90.0 | 5387 | 93.6 | 4981 | 95.8 | 5022 | 95.6 |
| Russians | 8 | 0.80 | - | - | 210 | 4.78 | 345 | 6.16 | 391 | 6.24 | 233 | 4.05 | 139 | 2.67 | 106 | 2.02 |
| Ukrainians | - | - | - | - | 21 | 0.48 | 32 | 0.57 | 40 | 0.64 | 33 | 0.57 | 17 | 0.33 | 19 | 0.36 |
| Belarusians | - | - | - | - | 26 | 0.59 | 22 | 0.39 | 21 | 0.33 | 11 | 0.19 | 4 | 0.08 | 3 | 0.06 |
| Finns | - | - | - | - | 75 | 1.71 | 72 | 1.29 | 89 | 1.42 | 39 | 0.68 | 25 | 0.48 | 25 | 0.48 |
| Jews | - | - | - | - | 0 | 0.00 | 3 | 0.05 | 2 | 0.03 | 2 | 0.03 | 1 | 0.02 | 3 | 0.06 |
| Latvians | 3 | 0.30 | - | - | 2 | 0.05 | 4 | 0.07 | 1 | 0.02 | 2 | 0.03 | 2 | 0.04 | 8 | 0.15 |
| Germans | 5 | 0.50 | - | - | - | - | 32 | 0.57 | 41 | 0.65 | 9 | 0.16 | 8 | 0.15 | 8 | 0.15 |
| Tatars | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | 0.02 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Poles | - | - | - | - | - | - | 3 | 0.05 | 1 | 0.02 | 2 | 0.03 | 0 | 0.00 | 3 | 0.06 |
| Lithuanians | - | - | - | - | 16 | 0.36 | 6 | 0.11 | 6 | 0.10 | 6 | 0.10 | 1 | 0.02 | 0 | 0.00 |
| unknown | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 10 | 0.17 | 2 | 0.04 | 19 | 0.36 |
| other | 3 | 0.30 | 611 | 19.9 | 43 | 0.98 | 9 | 0.16 | 32 | 0.51 | 24 | 0.42 | 22 | 0.42 | 37 | 0.70 |
| Total | 994 | 100 | 3073 | 100 | 4391 | 100 | 5599 | 100 | 6271 | 100 | 5758 | 100 | 5202 | 100 | 5254 | 99.9 |
03Notable people
- Einar Soone (born 1947), prelate, suffragan bishop to the Archbishop of Tallinn
- Helle Meri (1949-2024), actress and the First Lady of Estonia, 1992 to 2001, as the wife of Lennart Meri
- Urve Tiidus (born 1954), politician, Mayor of Kuressaare & Minister of Culture, 2013 to 2015
- Eve Pormeister (born 1956) a Germanist, literary scholar, critic and cultural mediator.
- Anne Veski (born 1956), pop singer.
- Lea Dali Lion (1974-2021), singer, musician and songwriter; soloist in the band Blacky, 1998 to 2013.
- Piret Laurimaa (born 1971), actress.
- Kristiina Ehin (born 1977), poet, translator, singer and songwriter.
- Rene Kokk (born 1980), politician, Minister of the Environment, 2019 to 2020.
- Märt Avandi (born 1981), actor and comedian, worked in the Estonian Drama Theatre, 2009 to 2014.
- Mikk Jürjens (born 1987), actor; singer and TV presenter.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Rapla”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Kirik Raplas.jpg by Aleksander Kaasik, CC BY-SA 3.0
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