Paide is the fifth oldest town of Estonia with more than 700 hundred years of history.

The town was once situated between deep forests, bogs and wetland that surround us ever since. The name of Paide town derives from limestone that is abundant in the area. The main tourist attraction is the Order Castle, built of white limestone. Now it houses a modern history museum with a time machine for tourists to travel back in centuries.
Paide is the capital of Järva County and the second biggest town in Estonia, with its 442 km2 we only have approximately 11,000 inhabitants, so it is easy to get lost.

In fact, we are the smallest town in Europe that has its own professional theatre. The world famous composer Arvo Pärt was born in Paide. National culture is highly respected in Paide – the Järva folk dance and song festival has been held annually for 111 years.

Paide is also known as a place where the annual Democracy festival (also known as Opinion festival) takes place. The festival brings together people who care about Estonia and the world from different communities to create a better understanding of themselves, each other and the world through a balanced discussion.

The town government manages with approximately 20 million euros budget every year.

Paide has the biggest bakery industries in Estonia. Sometimes we also do crazy things – for example in summer we close one of our biggest traffic junctions in the town center and open the area to citizens to enjoy free time.