Harjumaa, Estonia — Towns & Travel Guide

What is Harjumaa known for?

The capital and largest city of Estonia sits within it on the Gulf of Finland, which makes Harjumaa the most connected corner of the country and the base for most journeys into Estonia. The coast defines its northern edge. Rural counties ring it inland.

People know Harjumaa for Tallinn, the Gulf of Finland shore, and its place at the centre of Estonian life.

Where is Harjumaa?

Harjumaa lies along the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland, one of the fifteen counties of Estonia and the one that holds its capital. Tallinn, the capital and largest city of Estonia, stands on the county's shore, where the city meets the water of the gulf. The sea sets its whole upper edge.

Its life turns to the coast. Inland, the county spreads back from the shore in low ground of field, forest, and small town, reaching from the busy coastline to a quieter rural interior that fades toward the neighbouring counties. Four counties border Harjumaa on its landward sides.

Lääne-Viru County lies to the east and Järva County to the south-east, while Rapla County adjoins it to the south and Lääne County to the south-west, ringing the capital's county with quieter, more rural land. The coast holds the weight of it. Most of the county's life gathers along the shore of the Gulf of Finland around Tallinn, thinning inland across the low country until the fields and woods give way to the bordering counties of Estonia.

Water lies to the north, quiet land to the south.

What is Harjumaa like?

Harjumaa holds the cultural weight of the whole country, because it holds the capital. As the county of Tallinn, it is where the public life, institutions, and everyday culture of Estonia gather most thickly, drawing people from across the land to the shore of the Gulf of Finland. Estonian is the language of it.

Everything national leans toward this coast. The county carries the metropolitan life of the capital alongside the older rhythms of a coastal, small-town countryside, so its culture runs from city streets to quiet rural parishes within a short distance. Two very different lives meet in Harjumaa.

The first is urban and national, centred on Tallinn, where the government, the arts, and the working life of Estonia concentrate on the coast. The second is rural and coastal. Beyond the capital the county turns slow and green.

Out toward Lääne-Viru, Järva, Rapla, and Lääne counties, the pace eases to fields, forests, and villages along the Gulf of Finland, keeping the older country culture of the region alive beside the capital, all of it carried in the Estonian language and shaped by the northern sea.

What is the history of Harjumaa?

Harjumaa is one of the fifteen counties of Estonia, and its story is bound to Tallinn on the coast. The county takes its shape from the capital that grew on the Gulf of Finland, gathering the land around the city into a single administrative county of the Estonian state. Its history follows the capital.

As Tallinn rose on the northern shore, Harjumaa became the county of the capital, the coastal heart of Estonia among its bordering counties inland.

What is the climate of Harjumaa?

Harjumaa has a cool temperate climate set by the Gulf of Finland. Summers are short, mild, and light along the coast, while winters run cold and dark, with frost, snow, and ice on the shore and the low country inland. The sea softens the edges.

Spring and autumn come grey and changeable, wet with weather blowing in off the gulf and the wider Baltic.

How do you get to Harjumaa?

Harjumaa is reached through Tallinn, which holds the chief airport and passenger port of Estonia. Flights and ferries arrive at the capital on the Gulf of Finland, ferries crossing the gulf and roads and rail running out to Rapla, Järva, and the other bordering counties. Most travellers land at Tallinn.

From the capital the county is short to cross, either along the coast of the gulf or inland toward the rural counties of Estonia.