Valka Municipality
"One city, two states": divided by British envoy in 1920, reunited by Schengen in 2007. The Central Square (2018) has a swing that swings between countries.
Valka is half a city. The other half—Valga—is in Estonia. In 1920, British envoy Colonel S.G. Tallents drew a border through what had been a single town for 600 years. The population was roughly 50% Estonian, 50% Latvian; no clean division was possible. Estonia got the main town; Latvia got the suburbs.
Walk (the German name) first appeared in 1286 in Riga's credit register. It hosted 36 Livonian town assemblies before 1500—a central meeting place for a confederation that no longer exists. Polish-Lithuanian King Stefan Batory granted city rights in 1584.
The Soviet occupation reunited the towns by eliminating the border. Independence in 1991 re-divided them. EU and Schengen accession (2004, 2007) removed checkpoints again. In 2007, presidents Ilves and Zatlers shook hands at the crossing before its removal. In 2018, a joint Central Square opened across the border—including a swing that carries children from Estonia into Latvia and back.
The slogan is "1 City, 2 States." A city bus (line 3) connects both sides. By 2026, Valka-Valga demonstrates what borders mean in the Schengen era: invisible lines through shared space.