In the tourist environment, the city, once created by the Swedish crusaders, is considered authentically European. Everything here breathes with a genuine, almost medieval aura: catering establishments with notes of old design, powerful architecture of strong buildings with Scandinavian motifs, love for themed festivals and historical reconstructions.
Vyborg Castle
The medieval building has long been recognized as both a symbol and a visiting card of the city, so it can be seen in almost all tourist catalogs. Date of birth of the castle – ХΙΙΙ century. For 7 centuries, it has undergone reconstruction more than once, acquiring new functionality. It is considered an entertaining monument of the fortification art of antiquity, it received impressive destruction during the years of the Northern War.
Peter I took an active part in the restoration of the defensive citadel, thanks to whose decree many important features of the complex were preserved. At one time, it served in good stead not only for military tasks, but also for the quiet activities of merchants and jacks of all trades. The current appearance of the castle was acquired in the 19th century.
In the second half of the 20th century, a local history museum was opened here, where all the important relics of the region flocked. Among the exhibits there are many not only medieval artifacts, but also particles of the natural wealth of the Karelian Isthmus. It acts as a stage for knightly duels and musical events. It has a well-deserved status: a place that is mandatory for tourists to visit.
House of Wekrut
Landmark on the ground – the neighborhood with the building of the old, no longer fulfilling its functions of the Historical and Ethnographic Museum. The caramel-pink property was built in 1650 and belonged to the wealthy family of the merchant Johan Vekrut. The local Croesus was so extravagant that the floors in the house, according to beliefs, were cleaned not with a washing solution, but with wine, and the bread and dishes in the kitchen were beyond count.
The building became famous in the world tourist spaces thanks to the visit to Vyborg in 1772 of the most illustrious Empress Catherine the Great. A high-ranking person stayed in a building that was luxurious for those times, but after the death of Johan himself, his son Philip quickly sold the inheritance “under the hammer”, the house passed into the possession of the royal treasury.
In the 19th century, the elegant building was restored, adding notes of the Baltic Renaissance to the architecture. Among the tourist fraternity, the building is known as a place with an amazing cafe specializing in baking the famous local pretzels.
Clock tower
Visible from many parts of the city. It is connected with the aspirations of the Pope, who in the 10th century constantly advised the authorities to build a Catholic cathedral in Vyborg. He even promised to release the sins of the participants in the process of building the temple directly from the Vatican. The patronage of a high religious rank led to the fact that from the very beginning the building was made in stone, in contrast to wooden monasteries.
The tall structure originally served as a bell tower, but already in 1600 a clock mechanism was installed on it. Until the middle of ХΥΙΙΙ, the exotic tower was an eternal fire “sufferer”. It was destroyed by fire with enviable constancy, and after the reconstructions, the watches were made either by Swedish or Finnish masters. The last “keeper of time” has been serving the townspeople for more than 2 centuries.
Tourists have not been allowed inside the masterpiece of stone architecture since Soviet times, although once upon a time a convenient observation deck regularly served as an overview of the surrounding beauties. Meanwhile, from a distance, the architectural masterpiece still strikes the imagination and looks amazing, there is something majestic and grandiose in it.
House of merchant Buttengoff
The current status is an ordinary four-story residential building with a number of commercial offices and an interesting history. Appeared in the city in the ХΙХ century. It was built by the efforts of the Finnish architect Brynolf Blomkvist. Geolocation – Fortress street. The first owner, Emil Buttenhof, was a well-known person in the region, he was engaged in the supply of tobacco, wine and vodka, the building was supposed to be used as an apartment building.
The facade of the bright ocher-colored stone complex is decorated with artistic elements mixed with Renaissance influences: pilasters, tongs, bay windows, towers, semi-columns, and an intricate weather vane. The advantage of a stone masterpiece lies in the fact that it has been perfectly preserved almost in its original form.
Manor Burger
Former apartment owners: artisans and merchants. The building was an exquisite exclusive housing option for persons of the “middle class” in terms of social status, and at the same time it was luxurious. An architecturally interesting building was born in the 19th century and has been adorning Progonnaya Street ever since.
The walls are made of powerful boulders, which allowed the interesting landmark to reach our days, almost without losing its unique originality. Once upon a time, the walls of the estate provided shelter, serving as a frame for a workshop, warehouse, kitchen, living room and a number of bedrooms. The complex is notable for the presence of a coach house, where grooms lived, frisky horses rested after a working day.
Today, the tourist office of the Vyborg-Guide company and an exhibition hall with the creations of modern brush masters, embroiderers, potters, and birch bark craftsmen work in the entertaining house. After viewing the exposition of the exhibition, guests are offered fragrant ale from their own brewery and pretzels with herbs. A photo session is possible with such mystical characters as the miller Sampo, Kalevala, the witch Louhi, dressing in ancient knightly armor. There is enough entertainment for everyone, admission is free.
Citizen's house
One of the incarnations of the building is a miniature fortress. The date of birth of the stone curiosity is the ХΥΙ century. The building has 2 floors, is located on Fortress Street, invariably becomes a member of all excursion routes in the ancient settlement. An amazing fact: the house, as it was built several centuries ago to give shelter to people, has not changed its functions.
Historians suggest that it may well be the same residential rarity that can be called the oldest in Russia. There are only 2 apartments left in this “antediluvian” artifact, according to rumors, there are also two residents, but the curiosity of travelers to their housing no longer arouses their former enthusiasm, it is unlikely that they will be able to visit inside.
Vyborg City Hall
The Old Town Hall is a charming architectural creation, distinguished by an elegant facade, decorated with bright colors. Like many other local masterpieces made of stone, it appeared on the square of the same name in the ХΥΙ century. The building at that time was the most grandiose in size in the city, but this did not save it from destruction. In 1898, the complex was forced to seriously restore after the artillery shelling of Russian cannons in 1710 and some subsequent oblivion.
The original plan to return the house to the status of a religious institution was no longer possible. It either became a haven for the museum, or was again attacked during regular hostilities. In 1985, the complex received the status of a protected cultural heritage. The entrance is crowned by a monument to Thorgils Knutsson, and the whole area as a whole is very reminiscent of the landscapes of European capitals, Prague, Vienna, Warsaw.
Town Hall Tower
Landmark on the ground – Vyborg fortress. The date of birth of the tall building is 1470. It had the status of the only gate tower for the settlement, guarding the approaches to the settlement from the south-eastern borders. The building material is stone, the shape is a quadrangle. She survived a whole era of almost complete indifference to her person and oblivion.
No one imagined that the tower would later become an object of the cultural heritage of the Russian Federation. After the Soviet-Finnish war, the rarity was restored with varying success extremely slowly from 1952 to 1993. Now it is used as a church museum thanks to the patronage of the Church of the Mother of God Sovereign. Since 2016, it has become an official part of the Vyborg Museum-Reserve.
Military Museum of the Karelian Isthmus
The status of the institution is a private institution. The initiator of the formation of this exposition is the historian Bair Irincheev. Museum theme: Soviet-Finnish military conflicts of 1939-1944. Old relics are mainly presented in the form of historical documents, weapons, a collection of rare photographs, military ammunition of the Soviet and Finnish troops, the results of excavations on the battlefields: personal items, letters, remains of uniforms and household items.
Among the exhibits there are handicrafts from the time of the war. Male travelers like to visit this place for the reason that everything here can be touched, including weapons, and you can also try on the uniform if you wish. Location – former Central Barracks. Part of the museum is located in the open air, where you can see the commemorative MiG-19SV aircraft, a model of a tank that participated in the filming of the film “28 Panfilov's Men”, a piece of a real Finnish pillbox that once served military purposes on Karelian soil.
Bastion Pancerlaks
The purpose of the complex is a defensive bastion. It appeared on the Vyborg lands at the end of the 19th century. Once it was part of the Horned Fortress, on the shore of the bay. The building had as many as 3 tiers and 6 active loopholes, more than once scaring off enemies. It lost its role back in the ХΥΙΙΙ century, and quickly found itself surrounded by industrial enterprises, breweries, and merchant households.
Even the townspeople contributed to the oblivion of the bastion, they planted gardens and orchards near it on “fat” soils. As unnecessary, the Horned Fortress was razed to the ground, and the Panzerlax was left as an ancient artifact as a memory of the hard times. On the ruins of the bastion, the Vyborg Art Museum first appeared, and then the Art School and the Painting Workshop joined it.
So in 1930 the bastion became a cultural institution, but the Soviet-Finnish war spoiled everything, the valuables were taken to Finland, the works of art were partially lost or looted. Panzerlax acquired a new life in 2010, after a thorough restoration, a branch of the State Hermitage Museum, the Hermitage-Vyborg exhibition complex and an archaeological museum were opened here. Landmark on the ground – Ladanova street.
Viking Drakkars
You can see the miracle of sea and river technology at any time of the day. Landmark – hotel “Druzhba”, bus station. Viking ships appeared in the city during the filming of the historical film “And Trees Grow on Stones”, directed by Stanislav Rostotsky, and so they remained here. Tourists like to be photographed near the curiosity. Narrow and long boats look colorful in the pictures, but up close they still smell of wood and pine needles.
Scandinavian boats got their unusual name because ferocious dragon figures crowned their noses. Centuries have passed, but the term has taken root and everyone immediately understands what it is about. In ancient times, the Normans went on these ships to the nearest seas to rob and rob. The more powerful and stronger the “fast-winged” drakkar was, the richer its owner was considered.
the Red Square
In ancient sources, it was listed as the Red Well Square, then it was called the Red Spring Square. Today's status is the city's main venue for ceremonial events. It is surrounded on all sides by central arteries: Severnaya and Ushakov streets, Lenin and Suvorov avenues. A favorite place for the townspeople for walking with a developed infrastructure, shops, restaurants, historical sights.
It has been mentioned in ancient chronicles since the 15th century, but practically nothing has survived from those times. The oldest building is the “Pharmacy House”, which stands at the intersection of 2 avenues. Other architectural masterpieces: a stone club at the intersection of streets overlooking the square, residential buildings with fancy towers, the house of the merchant Moskvin with a suite of shops.
Alvaro Aalto Library
You can find a very famous institution in the enlightened world on Suvorov Avenue. Entrance is free, if you want to listen to an hour-long tour, you will have to pay 150 rubles. from a person. The brainchild of Alvar Aalto is recognized as one of the brightest stars of librarianship in Russia; visiting here is considered an undoubted success. The author of the project of the building is a Finnish celebrity, the then unknown architect Alvar Aalto. The style is a tandem of modernism with Finnish features of functionalism.
Rumor has it that the idea for such a masterpiece was ordinary egg packaging, which reliably preserves fragile shells. Funds for the construction of an unusual storage for books, thought out to the smallest nuances, were allocated from personal savings by the widow of a local sponsor of cultural projects, Maria Lalluka. The date of opening of the library is 1935, there are no similarly well-thought-out analogues using a technical approach to handling paper publications in the Russian Federation.
Annen fortifications
Annenkron is a legacy of the Petrine era. The purpose of the fortress is to solve fortification problems. The building got its name in honor of the Empress Anna Ioannovna, the locals call this brainchild of the Middle Ages – the kronverk of St. Anna. The shape of the building resembles a real crowned crown that once adorned the heads of the rulers of the country.
In the arsenal of the fortress you will not find anything: impregnable ditches, strong bastions, ravelins, labyrinths of intricate obstacles for enemies. At all times, the authorities did not really monitor the state of reliable fortifications, which led to numerous destruction of the defensive citadel.
Now tourists can only see the building of the guardhouse, and the Friedrichsgam and Ravelin gates, and even those are not in their best condition. But crowds of guests love to gather within the walls of the fortifications during the days of historical reconstructions and noisy rock festivals.
Petrovskaya Square
It is located in the possessions of the Anninsky fortifications. It appeared in the city during the reign of Empress Anna Ioannovna. In 1740, active development began here, first with wooden buildings, then a little later with stone houses. The beginning was laid by the appearance of the Gostiny Dvor, which serves as the center of brisk trade. This building was replaced in 1847 by the good possessions of Colonel Mendt. This was a kind of signal for the birth of Petrovsky Square in its current form.
In historical chronicles, this place is closely connected with the revolutionary movement of 1917-1918. Mass rallies of working people and military officials took place here. Until 1945, Petrovskaya Square was called Cape Sigovy, then it was renamed in honor of Peter I, whose monument still adorns the rocky elevation in the center. In 2010, another monument was erected nearby in honor of the 300th anniversary of the Russian Navy.
Monrepo Park
Geolocation – the northern district of the city. Known in the tourist world as a natural and architectural monument – the legacy of the Swedish barons Nicholas. The entrance ticket is paid, but it's worth it. The first masterpiece is the famous gate. Among the beauties of aristocratic designer landscapes, newlyweds like to arrange photo shoots, but other tourists return home with a collection of colorful pictures.
Mon Repos Park has another, original name – “My Rest”, as Prince Friedrich, the brother-in-law of Emperor Paul, called it. The buildings of the noble estate are in a state of permanent reconstruction, but there is still much to admire: the miniature pavilion “Temple of Neptune”, the tea arbor in oriental motifs, the spring “Narcissus”, rumored to have healing abilities for the eyes, and even made according to sketches by O. Montferrand, the author of the beauties of St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg.
Wash yourself with water – you will see the world better, drink – you will gain strength and vigor. New curiosities open up in the forest park zone: the Hermit's Hut, the Protective Bay, Chinese bridges, the statue of Väinemeinen, the hero of the Kaleval epic. In autumn, a wonderful festival “Golden Autumn in Mon Repos” takes place here.
The distance between St. Petersburg and Vyborg is quite short – 137 km, so many tourists make a trip to a medieval, truly European city, part of their excursion routes around the northern capital. Bus and railway routes have been established, the choice of offers is high, you can stop at a mode that will be most convenient.
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