{"id":5063646,"date":"2025-10-24T12:00:03","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T10:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/visitparnu.com\/vana-parnu-paide-maantee-ja-piirkonna-teedevorgust\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T10:11:55","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T08:11:55","slug":"the-old-parnu-paide-road-and-the-local-road-network","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/visitparnu.com\/en\/paikuse-history-trail\/the-old-parnu-paide-road-and-the-local-road-network\/","title":{"rendered":"The old P\u00e4rnu-Paide road and the local road network"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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The old P\u00e4rnu-Paide road and the local road network<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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On the way out of P\u00e4rnu we had to go through the Sindi pine forest, which was known to harbour many robbers and murderers…<\/i><\/p>

\u2013 From a travelogue in the newspaper Sakala<\/i>, 12 July 1919<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The old postal road<\/b><\/h2>

You are now standing on what was once the postal road leading from the town of P\u00e4rnu to Paide, by way of Tori and V\u00e4ndra. The road began at Raek\u00fcla on the Riga road and was considered one of the busiest roads in Northern Livonia, connecting the more fertile and prosperous areas of the P\u00e4rnu River basin with the export harbour in P\u00e4rnu.<\/p>

After crossing the Reiu River, this historic road initially turned left from Lodja tavern, following the riverbank through the Sindi pine forest and towards the factory settlement at Sindi Manor. The road was sandy, and in spring often became soft and full of ruts due to the heavy factory carts. Since the lower course of the P\u00e4rnu River was navigable only as far as the mouth of the Reiu River, the output of the Sindi cloth factory had to be hauled there for loading onto ships.<\/p>

Partly due to pressure from the factory administration and with support from the Livonian Road Fund, construction of a new stone road<\/b> along a new route<\/b> (today\u2019s road between Sindi-Lodja and Paikuse) began in 1910. A small reinforced concrete bridge also had to be built over the stream at Sindi Manor (T\u00fcrk\u2019s Stream). From then on, the old road gradually became overgrown with grass, being used only occasionally when the stone road underwent major repairs.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Winter roads between Viljandi and P\u00e4rnu<\/b><\/p>

Before the development of railways and motor transport, main trade was carried out in convoys along winter roads. These convoys transported loads of grain, flax, timber, spirits, salt and iron.<\/b><\/p>

Travelling over frozen bogs and along iced-over rivers made it much easier to move heavy loads compared to unpaved summer roads, and also significantly shortened the distances.<\/p>

One of Estonia\u2019s most important networks of winter roads developed across the marshlands between Viljandi and P\u00e4rnu. Depending on the exact starting point, the main branches of the route ran through T\u00f5ramaa via Tori or through Kikepera bog towards the Sikasselja tavern. The final destination of both roads was Sindi-Lodja<\/b>, where travellers descended onto the river ice at the mouth near the pontoon bridge, and the final stretch to the town of P\u00e4rnu was made along the firmly frozen river.<\/p>

This shortcut reduced the distance between P\u00e4rnu and Viljandi by almost a quarter. When a new road from Viljandi to P\u00e4rnu was planned in the 1930s, its endpoint was marked as being the Sindi-Lodja tavern. The distance between the two towns on this road, which unfortunately was never built, would have been just under 70 km.<\/p>

The importance of the winter roads declined with the development of the railway network, and ultimately disappeared entirely with the replacement of horse-drawn transport with automobiles in the 1950s.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The starting point of the P\u00e4rnu-Viljandi winter road at Sindi-Lodja. Tavern building in the centre P\u00e4rnu Museum photo collection<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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Of the 46 bridges built on the Lelle-P\u00e4rnu railway, the last one before P\u00e4rnu crossed the Reiu River. Photo from the P\u00e4rnu Museum collection<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The old narrow-gauge railway embankment runs parallel to the road between Lodja and Paikus.<\/b><\/p>

To shorten the railway connection between P\u00e4rnu and Tallinn, which previously ran through M\u00f5isak\u00fcla and Viljandi, a new railway line was built from Lelle to P\u00e4rnu in 1925. It was opened on 16 February 1928 and significantly reduced the previous 15-hour travel time between Tallinn and P\u00e4rnu. From then on, the main traffic between Sindi and P\u00e4rnu was also by rail.<\/p>

By 1973, the Lelle-P\u00e4rnu narrow-gauge section was replaced with a broad-gauge one, which was rerouted before Sindi onto a new alignment via Tammiste and, starting in 1976, across the Papiniidu Bridge to Raek\u00fcla. Due to reconstruction work, the railway connection between Sindi and P\u00e4rnu had been dismantled earlier, in 1969.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Construction of the road between Tori and Sindi in 1934 Photo from the collection of the Estonian National Museum<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The old P\u00e4rnu-Paide road and the local road network On the way out of P\u00e4rnu we had to go through the Sindi pine forest, which was known to harbour many robbers and murderers… \u2013 From a travelogue in the newspaper Sakala, 12 July 1919 The old postal road You are now standing on what was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"parent":5063628,"menu_order":7,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"elementor_header_footer","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5063646","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe old P\u00e4rnu-Paide road and the local road network - Visit P\u00e4rnu<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/visitparnu.com\/en\/paikuse-history-trail\/the-old-parnu-paide-road-and-the-local-road-network\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The old P\u00e4rnu-Paide road and the local road network - 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