The remains of the fortress at Vastseliina are about 20km southeast of Võru. Hopefully, excavations will, in due course, find evidence of an earlier Estonian fortification, but at the moment it is possible to see the remains of a castle dating back to the 14th century, when the Teutonic Knights were finally able to conquer the Estonian tribes. The limestone was excavated locally, although it was previously thought to have been brought from Isborsk, now over the border in Russia. Given its current total rural environment, it is hard to think of this castle as a constant battleground for the following three centuries between the Swedes, the Poles and the Russians, but its 4.5-metre thick walls were certainly needed to defend it. Peter the Great was its last conqueror, when he drove out the Swedes in 1702, but he did not bother to restore it given that the more powerful armaments by then available made it redundant.There was some fighting around the castle in 1944 and about 100 German troops were buried here at that time. Their bodies were only taken back to Germany in 1990. The skeleton of a German sniper was found in the castle ruins as late as 1951. The museum is in a former smithy on the other side of the road. Some of the bricks used to build it in 1800 came from the castle. Apart from models of the castle it has an extensive exhibition of wooden furniture, every item of which was put together without nails, which even applies to cupboards.
Neil Taylor "Estonia. The Bradt Travel Guide", 2007 |
