Vyborg city in Russia

Vyborg city in Russia
Vyborg castle

Visit Burger’s estate and see the romantic old castle in Vyborg

Vyborg is an ideal place to spend the night. Especially for car travelers who travel to Finland. The Torfyanovka crossing point on the Russian-Finnish border is just over 50 kilometers away. From St. Petersburg along the highway – 136 km, from Veliky Novgorod – 330. And from Moscow – 854 km by the speedometer.

It’s cooler than Helsinki and Stockholm

You may be surprised, but in the small border town of Vyborg (population of only 77 thousand people) you can see much more than in Helsinki and Stockholm, the capitals of the countries to which Vyborg was once a part.

All the typical sights of a northern European city founded in the Middle Ages – an old castle and fortifications, temples, houses of typical townspeople – are collected on a small area on the shores of the Vyborg Bay. As well as residential and office buildings in the Art Nouveau style of the beginning of the last century …

A little outside the city – the beautiful rocky landscape park ensemble of Mon Repos of the end of the 18th century – is no worse than the St. Petersburg suburban park and palace ensembles, and if you drive a couple of tens of kilometers, then lovers of military history can stumble upon concrete pillboxes and other structures of the legendary “Mannerheim Line” , where there were heavy battles of the “winter war” of 1939-1940.

Market Square

Vyborg market with a clock tower

Although this is actually a cascade of three squares, Teatralnaya, Pionerskaya and own Market Square, and the central Esplanade Park adjoining them. The square itself is a whole set of monumental houses: the red-brick monumental building of the former Bank of Finland at the beginning of the last century, when the Grand Duchy of Finland, which was part of the Russian Empire, had not only broad autonomy. Also the Vyborg market with a clock tower and the Round tower. One of the two battle towers of the Vyborg fortress, preserved from the middle of the 16th century.

Vyborg market

It was built at the very beginning of the last century in the Northern Art Nouveau style and for a long time was considered the largest in Scandinavia, it has already been closed. Although its assortment is not very diverse. And, in general, is of little interest: traditional glass vegetables and fruits from Turkey, yoghurts and sour cream from neighboring Finland, packaged in circumvention of counter-sanctions in the Leningrad region.

The Round Tower is another matter: now there is a restaurant with the unexpected name “Round Tower”.

Clock tower

Clock tower in Vyborg
Clock tower in Vyborg

It is considered the dominant feature of the Old Town; it is the former cathedral bell tower, built at the end of the 15th century. Then, however, during the hostilities of the “winter war” it was badly damaged, but it was repaired and built on. Alas, the clock tower is under reconstruction again, and through the scaffolding and repair cladding, its outlines are barely visible.

Old Town Hall

At the very end of Fortress Street, where, on the open sea and the Town Hall Square paved with cobblestones, it runs into the bay, there are several historical and architectural gems at once. First of all, the Old Town Hall and the monument to the founder of Vyborg (it happened – it’s hard to believe! – in 1293), the Swedish admiral Torgils Knutsson.

Round tower in Vyborg
Round tower in Vyborg

Vyborg castle

Opposite the Old Town Hall, on the small island of Zamkovy (its size is only 170 by 122 meters), the main local artifact is the Vyborg Castle, built in the 13th century and perfectly preserved. Now the castle houses a museum, but it is open only until 18:00. So it’s not destiny.

Mon Repos Park
Park
Park “Monrepo”

Historical, architectural and natural museum-reserve “Mon Repos Park” – city bus N1 / 6 runs to it from the center of Vyborg or you can walk on foot, it will take about an hour.
Anninsky fortifications of the middle of the 18th century. If you walk along the Zamkovo Bridge past the Vyborg Castle to the other side of the strait, then you will just rest against them. They were erected under the Empress Anna Ioannovna and are named in her honor.
Several remarkable architectural examples of Art Nouveau and National Romanticism from the beginning of the last century by local architects Uno Ulberg, Axel Günden and Allan Schulman, including the Granite Palace, Lallucca House and ordinary residential buildings intended for administrative and commercial purposes.

War in Vyborg

The Finns consider the war to be one – 1939-1944, but we are talking about the “winter campaign” of 1939-1940. And the hostilities against the Finnish army during the Great Patriotic War.
During its course, Soviet aviation bombed Vyborg several times. It was especially fierce in January-February 1940 and again in June 1944. As a result, tram traffic was disrupted twice. It was restored only after the war, and old trams were running around Vyborg even before 1956. Now a model of such a tram with statues of a conductor and a free-rider boy is erected as a monument on the preserved rails in the park next to Teatralnaya Square. Many historic buildings were also damaged. Fortunately, some were recovered.

Transfiguration Cathedral in Vyborg
Transfiguration Cathedral in Vyborg
Where can you stay

There are several quite modern and comfortable hotels in the center of Vyborg. And at quite reasonable prices – $ 50 per day for two, including breakfast. These are hotels: “Vyborg”, “Viking”, “Atlantic”, “Druzhba”, “Northern Crown”, “The Bat”.

Where to have a snack

If you want a historical environment, then you are in the Round Tower restaurant. The place is purely tourist. Here are the appropriate menus and prices.

But in the Old Town itself and in its immediate vicinity there are many cozy cafes and restaurants with a cute, albeit unpretentious interior. Where it is quite possible to have a snack for a tired traveler: “Bear”, “Domino”, “Mon plezir”, “Polyana”, ” Piggy bank”.