In the region · Ida-Viru County
Oil-shale town in separate districts
Kohtla-Järve grew around the oil-shale industry in the 20th century and consists of districts physically separated from each other — the most unusually shaped town in Estonia. The semi-coke hills left by the industry are part of the landscape and are now being capped and planted.
"The hill on the horizon is not a hill. It is what was taken out of the ground and left over."
3 · Experience
A former oil-shale mine where you can go underground, ride a miners' train and see machinery working.
Why it belongs to the storyOil shale is why towns were built here, why workers were brought in, and why the landscape looks as it does. Here you can touch that material.
Hills of industrial waste accumulated over decades, now being capped, covered and planted.
Why it belongs to the storyThis waste landscape is part of the region's honesty. There is no point prettifying it — but its remediation is real work today, not a promise.
A former industrial waste hill near the Lääne-Viru boundary, turned into a year-round sports centre — skiing, tubing, bike trails.
Why it belongs to the storyThe most concrete proof that a waste landscape can be used. Not a metaphor — a real slope with a real lift.
