We are glad to offer you the pre-congress tour to : Vyborg – the medieval town!

30 August 2014, Saturday

08:00 Departure from St. Petersburg to Vyborg by bus. The total duration of the route is nearly 2 hours. Excursion during the route.

Vyborg is the only medieval town in . The history of Vyborg covers seven centuries. In transfer from Swedish “Vi” means sacred, and “borg” - a city, a fortress. The history of Vyborg is a history of storms and loud fights in which great tsars and kings, brave soldiers and the glorified commanders have been involved. For the long life the city was under the power of 5 different states: the Swedish kingdom, the , Independent , , and since 1992 it was a part of the Russian Federation. It is natural that it was reflected and in external shape of a city, in its architecture and the space organisation. Vyborg can't be regarded as a typical Russian town as it looks rather West-European. You can find a mixture of various architectural styles, evident influences of romanticism and renaissance, classicism and functional style. A real example of the functional style in architecture of the town is the unique library of Alvar Aalto, who was famous Finnish architect. For today the historical heritage of Vyborg is recognised by an independent cultural value, organically and by originally uniting monuments of the various countries and nationalities.

10:00 Arrival to Vyborg, bus city tour with English speaking guide.

During the city tour you will see and visit the romantic old center with aging buildings, small and cozy parks and cobblestone streets, Vyborg's towers: towers of St. Olaf and Paradise in the lock, the Round tower, the Town hall tower, a graceful belfry of the Spaso-Preobrazhenskiy cathedral, constructions: forts from different centuries, The most difficult destiny among the towers has got to a tower of city clocks dates back to XV century, the former belfry of a cathedral or the Clock tower. The Round tower, which is located on the Market square, where in XVI century there passed a wall with the towers, surrounding a city a stone ring.

The symbol and the landmark of Vyborg is the medieval Vyborg's , was founded in 1293 by Swedes during the 3rd crusade. The main tower of the Castle bears the name of St. Olaf which introduced Christianity in Scandinavia. From this tower opens a magnificient panoramic view to the town, the bay and vicinity.

14:00 Lunch at the restaurant.

15:30 Excursion to the “Monrepos” park. Monrepos is a manor house and the only rocky landscape English park in Russia, which lies along the shoreline of the . The story of the park starts in 1760, when Peter Stupishin, the commander of Vyborg’s fortress, acquired "Old Vyborg" manor on Linnansaari Island. Here he began the creation of Sharlottendal Park, named after his wife Charlotte. The manor and park then were bought by Friedrich Wilhelm Karl Herzog von Württemberg. Prince Friedrich gave the park its present name Mon Repos or "Monrepos" (fr. "my rest" or "my repose"), presumably to remind him of the Swiss house Monrepos near Lausanne where he had spent his youth; thus the park was designed according to European precedent. It was the manor’s next owner, who bought it in 1788, the German born Baron Ludwig Heinrich von Nicolay who played the greatest part in the creation of today’s landscape park. Having a profound knowledge and love of Classicism in both art and literature he was at the same time sensitive to new artistic trends. Circumstances gave him an opportunity to realize his main intent, to enrich a majestic and wild landscape without destroying it, with taste and in the manner of an exquisite artist. Monrepos belonged to Baron Nicolay's family till 1943. Nowadays among the most appreciable sights of this romantic park are Broglio brothers' obelisk, the Ludwigstein Chapel on so-called "the Island of Dead", a statue of "Väinämöinen playing kantele" - the hero of Karelian epos "Kalevala" - and Neptune's temple. In this nature reserve can be found more than 300 species of different plants, some of them are rare.

Arrival to St. Petersburg approximately at 19:30.