Lappeenranta Fortress

The fortress at Lappeenranta occupies a headland above the harbour on Lake Saimaa, begun by Sweden in the 1720s and completed and extended under Russian rule later in the century, with earth ramparts, bastions, gates and a garrison quarter inside. Within the walls stands the Church of the Intercession, built in 1785, the oldest Orthodox church in Finland, along with the old guardhouse, officers' buildings and a cavalry museum. Craft workshops and cafes occupy several of the buildings in summer. Below the ramparts the harbour front is the centre of the town's summer life, with the Saimaa canal and lake cruises leaving from the quay.

History

In 1649 the Governor-General of Finland, Per Brahe the Younger, decided to found a new town by the waterways here, with a plan drawn up that year by Erik Nilsson Aspgren, and on 20 September 1652 the Diet in Stockholm granted it town rights. After the Treaty of Nystad of 1721 put the new border close by, a Swedish commission under Axel Löwen placed a small garrison here in 1722 and decided to fortify Lappeenranta, with 112 soldiers guarding the trading post; the fortifications, designed from 1723 by the brothers Carl Friedrich and Anders Johann Nordenberg with Jacob Johann Faber, were mostly built between 1722 and 1728. In the late 1730s more money was given to extend them under Adam Reinhardt Bruno, until the Russo-Swedish War of 1741-1743 stopped the work (Wikipedia, Lappeenranta Fortress).

The main sights

• The 1785 Orthodox church - the oldest of its kind in Finland.
• Earth ramparts and bastions - the eighteenth-century fortification.
• The cavalry museum - the garrison history inside the walls.
• The harbour below - Saimaa cruises and the summer waterfront.

When to go

May to September, when the museums, workshops and boats operate; the ramparts are walkable year round. Half a day. Museums close on Mondays.

Things to know

Museums and workshops close outside the summer and the fortress is then quiet and empty. The buildings are modest and the interest is the ensemble rather than any one thing. The harbour is crowded on summer weekends.

Nearby

Imatra is east; Lake Saimaa spreads north.

Key facts