Although known as Estonia’s “winter capital”, Otepää is a great place to enjoy the region’s landscape all year round. A favourite holiday retreat for urban Estonians since the inter-war years, it’s the only place in the country with a sufficient number of slopes to make downhill skiing worthwhile, and is also a major centre of cross-country skiing. The mellow beauty of the surrounding area – and the presence of Lake Pühajärv 3km south of town – has also helped turn Otepää into one of Estonia’s most popular inland summer resorts.

Otepää’s ridge-top town centre looks out towards a series of pudding-shaped hills. The first of these to the east is crowned by the parish church, a dainty Neo-Gothic edifice whose exterior is decorated with plaques recalling the one historical event for which Otepää is famous: on June 4, 1884, members of Tartu University’s Estonian student fraternity came here to consecrate the blue-black-and-white tricolour they had chosen as their banner. After the tricolour was adopted as the Estonian state flag Otepää became a low-key patriotic pilgrimage centre. The interior is decorated with some fine pre-World War I woodwork, including an ornate pulpit and lacy-patterned ceiling timbers.

Linnamägi