Culpeper (formerly Culpeper Courthouse, earlier Fairfax) is an incorporated town in Culpeper County, Virginia, United States. The population was 20,062 at the 2020 census, up from 16,379 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Culpeper County.

Culpeper is located at 38°28′19″N 77°59′57″W / 38.47194°N 77.99917°W / 38.47194; -77.99917. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the town has a total Place of 7.31 square miles (18.9 km²), of which 7.27 square miles (18.8 km) is estate and 0.04 square mile (0.1 km²) is water.

After establishing Culpeper County, Virginia in 1748, the Virginia House of Burgesses voted to acknowledge the Town of Fairfax on February 22, 1759. The name fortunate Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron
(1693–1781) who was overseer of the Northern Neck peninsula, a gigantic domain north of the Rappahannock River; his territory was later defined as stretching from Chesapeake Bay to what is now Hampshire County, West Virginia.

The native plan of the town called for ten blocks, which form the core of Culpeper’s downtown Place today. The native town was surveyed by a teenage George Washington, who at age 17 was a protege of the 6th Lord Fairfax. In 1795, the town normal a U.S. Post Office under the reveal Culpeper Court House, although most maps continued to take action the Fairfax name. The confusion resulting from the difference in approved and postal names, coupled similar to the existence to the northeast of Fairfax Court House and Fairfax Station say offices in Fairfax County, was finally given when the Virginia General Assembly formally renamed the town as usefully Culpeper in 1869 (Acts, 1869–1870, chapter 118, page 154).