Vyborg Castle

Vyborg Castle (, , ) is a Swedish built medieval fortress around which the town of Vyborg, Russia evolved. Currently it is a museum.

General

Vyborg Castle was one of the three major castles of Finland. It was built as the easternmost outpost of the medieval Kingdom of Sweden: it is located on the Karelian isthmus, on a little islet in the innermost corner of the Gulf of Finland, in a tight strait which connects Suomenvedenpohja to Bay of Viipuri. It was originally constructed in the 1290s.

The town was originally located inside the outer fortifications of the castle, at the fortress island, but it had to be moved to its present location out of the island because of lack of space.

Medieval history

The construction of the fortress started in 1293 by orders of Torkel Knutsson, the Lord High Constable of Sweden who made in 1290s a so-called crusade to Karelia, the so-called Third Finnish Crusade, actually aimed against Russians, i.e. Novgorod. He chose the location of the new fortress to keep the Bay of Vyborg, which was a trading site used by locals already for a long time. From the bay, a river way goes inland, ultimately connecting the place to several districts, lakes, and indirectly also to rivers going to Ladoga.

The three high-medieval Finnish "castle fiefs" were ruled from the castles of Turku, Hämeenlinna and Viipuri, respectively until the 1360s.

In 1366, Albert III of Mecklenburg was elected king, and according to the German model he began to divide up the...
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