Historical Vyborg

The exhibition on historical Vyborg focuses on photographs taken before the wars, old drawings, and maps. The exhibition only includes a couple of photographs taken during the Continuation War.

There are four themes in the exhibition which highlight the events of the Vyborg history from the 1290s. Building locations have been marked with numbers on five maps. For example, locations of medieval buildings and old town walls can be found on the maps.

The early Middle Ages of Vyborg are presented with photographs and drawings.

After the walls and fortresses had been demolished, the town grew rapidly and the zoned area was multiplied in the 1860s-1880s.

A relic supervisor recorded the early history of construction culture with drawings and photographs already from the 1920s. The exhibition includes a couple of quantity surveying drawings for medieval houses from the 1930s and photos on excavations.

The construction activity of the 1920s and 1930s is presented with photographs. Some outstanding culture and service buildings were built then in Vyborg.

At the end of the 1930s, prosperity increased in Finland, which speeded up construction in Vyborg, the second largest Finnish town with more than 86 000 inhabitants.

The exhibition also highlights construction projects which were planned but became wrecked by the Soviet Union assault on Finland on 30 November 1939.

The Finnish Vyborg is a home town for many of us today and the beautiful memories and town views are often gilded by nostalgia.

Pamaus-seura and Viipuri-säätiö have contributed to implementation of the photograph exhibition. Their home town was Vyborg.

Juha Lankinen