Vyborg. The town that does not exist

Vyborg is a city with a glorious past, a medieval picture that, if you lick it, you can safely bring tourists here, moreover, Swedish, and say: "Look at which city you have been squeezed out." So far it turns out differently, we can bring Swedish tourists here and say: "Look what we have lost." Nowhere else in Russia has my soul been hurt so painfully as in Vyborg. Many buildings are collapsing, but still hold on to their place. Today I’ll tell you about three buildings in this city that cannot be returned, because there are no horns or legs left from them.

New Vyborg Cathedral

By the end of the nineteenth century, in the semi-Russian Vyborg, believers were divided into two Lutheran communities, some believed in the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, others in the rural community, but their number was growing significantly and the parish could not accommodate everyone. So in 1891 the idea came to build an impressive new cathedral, for centuries, to the envy of ancestors, to the heritage of descendants.

The adornment of this cathedral was not only impressive interiors, but also an amazing organ, not simple, but the largest in all of northern Europe.

The neo-Gothic handsome man, who today could be the main visiting card of Vyborg, against which the Chinese would take a selfie and buy magnets released in their own country. It is possible that he would have been presented with a beautiful name like Notre Dame de Vybori and would dedicate a couple of songs.

But war came to these lands, and during the fighting, the temple was destroyed, as it looked in 1941.

He could still be saved after the war, the Soviet commission put the temple on the list of "architectural monuments." But did our government support religion? No. Therefore, the cathedral decided to finally demolish and smash a square in its place, in the center of which there must be a monument, ideally to Stalin.

So in the city did not become his first business card.

Restaurant "Esplanade"

Regular readers of my blog remember the latest review of one of the most popular restaurants in Vyborg, but a century ago there was one restaurant in the city, the fame of which spread far beyond the city limits. People came to him from St. Petersburg to taste the local dishes, and enjoy the interiors.

This crown of wooden architecture was an example of restaurant business in the city. What can I say, these restaurants and in our time it is hard to meet.

At first there was a Russian institution called Belvedere, but it burned down, and in its place the Finns rebuilt a new building, calling it the Esplanade. So that you feel the scope, then you know, the restaurant even had an open stage.

Here, the most famous orchestras performed three times a week.

A successful future was again prevented by war. The restaurant was destroyed, in modern history they wanted to restore it and half a year ago they handed over a building similar to that restaurant to the delight of tourists, but they can’t return it to its former greatness.

Vyborg train station

Now you may ask: “Wait a minute, where are the trains coming from? We ourselves saw the building, walked on it with legs.” Yes, but the fact is that the station of this city experienced three revivals and managed to visit in different guises: in wooden, granite and Soviet. The real phoenix of this city.

His first birth was during the construction of the railway connecting Helsingfors and St. Petersburg, then the most prosperous history of the city began, which sat in the middle of the transport route of the friendly regions of the empire and collected a lot of gingerbread from passing trains.

The city flourished like tulips in the Netherlands, and already at the beginning of the 20th century it was decided to renew the station building, it was not worthwhile for such a wonderful city to have a temporary wooden building, and by 1913 a miracle appeared in Vyborg as a result of competitions.

The handsome man from red Finnish granite became the next visiting card of the city and in the ceremonial tuxedo he met guests arriving in Vyborg.

But like previous architectural structures, he fell in the liberation battles of the city.

They did not dare to restore it in the image and likeness, they made a new version in the style of the Stalinist Empire, but it is far from its predecessor.

All photos in this post, except for the title one from the site: //alvakaron.blogspot.ru/

To date, only the building of the luggage office informs us of past greatness.

These are they, three buildings from the past city that suffered at the time of the war and were finished off by their own people, on whose graves nothing beautiful was born. As a result of this post, I want to hang in the air only one question: "Does the current city government know which building will be next on this list?"