Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
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ESSENTIALS
Organized tours to Vyborg are rarer than those to Peterhof or Pavlovsk, but a hotel con-
cierge or tour guide can help you find one. Vyborg is on the main highway between St.
Petersburg and Finland, which can get clogged on Russian holiday weekends and on which
traffic slows down considerably during the blustery winter months. A summer weekday is
an ideal time to go if you're in a car or on a tour bus. Trains also run three times a day from
St. Petersburg's Finlandsky Vokzal Station; the trip takes 2 hours one way.
For a provincial city, Vyborg is unusually international, with menus in several lan-
guages and service staff usually eager to speak English. That's largely because of its prox-
imity to Finland, and its popularity among Finnish tourists who come to buy cheap
vodka, beer, and cigarettes. Russian vendors may speak to you in Finnish before they try
English. If you're traveling on your own, buy a map at a newspaper kiosk; the city can be
unwieldy if you don't know where you're going.
WHAT TO SEE & DO
The city inhabits a peninsula and several small islands on the northeast Baltic coast. The
area was initially a trade settlement of Karelians, an ethnic group native to a region in
what is now eastern Finland and northwest Russia. The Swedes came along and founded
a city here in 1293 to use as a base for raids into neighboring Russia. Peter the Great
conquered the city in 1710 during his 40-year war with Sweden. A century later, in 1811,
it went to the Grand Duchy of Finland under Russian sovereignty. The city and sur-
rounding region were part of the fledgling, independent nation of Finland from 1917 to
1940, and Vyborg (called Viipuri in Finnish) was Finland's second-largest city. The Win-
ter War between Finland and the Soviet Union left Vyborg again in Russian hands, where
it has remained since. Karelians remained the primary inhabitants until World War II,
when many were evacuated to western Finland or forced out by Soviet troops.
Vyborg Castle,
on a rocky island in the center of town, was the Swedes' first major
project here, built in the 1290s. The stone castle saw many additions in subsequent
centuries, and now houses a small museum whose exhibits include archaeological finds
from the area and some curious items confiscated by 20th-century border guards. The
island itself is an almost mystical outpost that lends itself easily to imagining what it
looked like 700 years ago. The castle hosts St. Petersburg's White Nights events such as
jazz or classical music concerts. The castle (
&
813/782-1515
) is open Tuesday through
Sunday from 10am to 5pm.
Be sure to wander through the
Old Vyborg district,
which boasts architecture from
the 14th to 17th centuries that is markedly more Scandinavian in style than the Russian
palaces that later popped up around town. Catholic and Protestant churches are more
plentiful than Orthodox ones.
Market Square (Rynochnaya Ploshchad)
includes the
only remaining tower of the 16th-century fortress wall built by the Swedes; the market
itself dates from 1905 and shows hints of the Russian obsession with Art Nouveau. The
Central Library,
designed by Alvar Aalto in the 1930s, is a highlight of Finnish design
during this fruitful architectural period. The architectural and nature reserve at
Monre-
pos Park
is well worth a stroll or picnic if the weather is fine. The romantic landscaping
of the island park includes gardens and sculptures favored by the aristocracy and archi-
tects of Peter the Great's day.
Progonnaya Ulitsa (Driving St.),
once used for driving
sheep and cows to pasture, now boasts several unusual buildings as it stretches toward the
Gulf of Finland.
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