Exploring Northeastern Estonia

By Sergey Chernov

The St. Petersburg Times

Published: April 3, 2013 (Issue # 1753)

Sergey Chernov / spt Narva Town Hall, one of the very few surviving buildings of what was once Narva’s Old Town, stands in the shadow of the bracingly modern campus of the University of Tartu’s Narva College.

Ida-Viru County, or Ida-Virumaa, a northeastern and somewhat overlooked part of this small yet extremely diverse Baltic country, can be an exciting adventure, even if the northern spring is late to arrive. And it is closer to St. Petersburg than the nearest Finnish city of Lappeenranta (163 km vs. 207 km), thus making it an even closer gateway to the European Union.

After a two-and-a-half hour bus ride from St. Petersburg, the traveler is met by a magnificent view of two medieval fortresses confronting one another. One is Russia’s Ivangorod Fortress — and just across the narrow Narva River — Estonia’s Hermann Castle. The iconic image of these two citadels facing each other adorned Estonian 5-kroon bills until the euro was introduced in 2010.

Gateway to Estonia

Hermann Castle is Narva’a most popular image. As a medieval stronghold originally established by the Danes in 1256, the wooden fortress was sold to the Livonian Order of the Teutonic Knights in 1346.

Both the castle and the city of Narva were destroyed during World War II, as the area was the scene of especially heavy fighting, with the battle for Narva in 1944 leading to thousands of casualties on both sides.

Currently, the Russian-Estonian border is formed by the Narva River, although during Estonia’s first period of independence between 1919 and 1940, Ivangorod was part of Narva, but was absorbed into the Soviet Russian Federation in 1945, and was not returned to Estonia when the Baltic country regained independence in 1991. The Russian-Estonian border treaty is yet to be ratified.

Although promoted as Estonia’s best-preserved castle, Hermann Castle was reconstructed during the Soviet period and was recently rejected as a UNESCO heritage site because the building barely resembles the original structure. It was therefore deemed of little historical value. Yet despite this, the castle — especially when seen paired with its Russian equivalent — is an imposing sight that stirs the imagination and stimulates a sense of history.

Narva is primarily a Russian-speaking city and is populated mostly by ethnic Russians. Ethnic Estonians constitute a mere 3 percent of the population. The imbalance was caused by mass Soviet deportations of the Estonians to the Gulag. The survivors were not permitted to return to their land, presumably because of the Soviet Union’s Cold War plans to develop nuclear facilities in the region, to where the workforce was brought from across the Soviet Union.

The city — once renowned for its blend of gothic, baroque and classicism — was reduced to ruins in the course of the devastating Soviet air raids in March 1944. To add insult to injury the Ivangorod Fortress, several churches, the buildings of the Krenholm Manufacturing Company and a large number of residential buildings were blown up by retreating German troops several months later. By the end of July 1944, when the German troops left Narva, 98 percent of the city had been destroyed.

The Soviets, who reoccupied the city in 1944, chose to pull down the ruins of the old town in 1950 to build a modern city center, rather than repair the damaged buildings redolent of Narva’s western past. Only two residential buildings and Narva’s town hall have been restored.

Nonetheless, Narva still merits some exploration. Hermann Castle, Narva’s most visited site, houses the Narva Museum, which tells the story of the medieval town and citadel. All kinds of outdoor events are held against its walls, from Georgian food fairs to rock festivals, including the notorious Narva Bike, to be held this year on July 19-21 and headlined by British pop band Smokie. The three-floor restaurant Castell, located in the castle’s northwestern tower, provides not only food but also a show based on the deeds of the knights, with armored actors dancing and rattling their swords in the aisles between the tables.

Apart from the castle, the city is famous for its 17th-century Swedish bastions. Named Honor, Gloria, Victoria, Fama, Triumph, Fortuna, and Spes the casemates of the seven buildings were used as bomb shelters during World War II, and The Dark Gardens, the city’s oldest landscape park, created on the Victoria bastion in the 19th century.

In addition to the castle, the Orthodox Resurrection of Christ Cathedral and the Lutheran Church of Alexander — both dating to the late 19th-century— have been rebuilt and can be visited.

The only civic building to be restored by the Soviets, Narva’s town hall is considered to be the best-preserved historical building in the city, even if it was severely damaged during WWII and stood without a roof until it was restored in the early 1960s. Originally built by German architect Georg Teuffel in 1668-1671, it was used to house the city’s “young pioneer palace” during the Soviet period. Currently closed to visitors, it now provides shelter for creative workshops and a rehearsal room for a local rock band.

One of the town hall’s rooms houses a model of Narva now as well as paper scale model of the pre-1940 Narva lovingly created by local enthusiast Fyodor Shantsyn. Not yet finished due to the frequent lack of funds, the 1:100 scale model is expected to be the first step in creating an Old Narva miniature park.

Sergey Chernov / spt Founded in 1960, Narva Joesuu Spa and Sanatorium is located near the beach.

The square upon which the town hall sits is where the different approaches to Narva’s heritage engage in desperate conflict. Alongside the old town hall sits a new 10-million euro structure housing the University of Tartu’s Narva College. It is a radical sight.

Designed by a team of Estonian architects, its white façade with a “beak” is a take on the old Narva Stock Exchange which occupied the site before it was damaged in WWII and pulled down a few years later. It’s avant-garde form, with the beak repeating the shape of a part of the stock exchange’s roof, is a nod to the city’s past, yet the cutting-edge innovations hiding inside look decidedly to the future.

The interiors are designed to be the perfect environment for academic studies, while also maintining a slightly informal feel. An atrium is closed on the sides with ironwork gates designed to replicate the patterns found on the wings of a South American butterfly species called Chlosyne narva.

The Narva College building was criticized by preservationists, who wanted the stock exchange rebuilt as it was before being demolished, and opposed by city authorities, which delayed it construction for six years. The building was finally inaugurated by Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves in November of last year.

Tsarist-era Resort

From Narva, it is only 18 kilometers north to Narva-Joesuu, a celebrated resort with a 13-kilometer fine sand beach and pine trees, which attracted Russians both under the Tsars and the Communists.

Located on the Narva Bay of the Gulf of Finland, it is where Estonia’s longest, river, the Narva, which has its source at the northeastern end of Lake Peipus, flows into the sea. The road there offers great views of the river, with Russia on the other bank.

The long list of celebrities who visited the resort before the 1917 revolution includes painter Ilya Repin, author Nikolai Leskov and poet Igor Severyanin.

Close to the beach sits the Narva-Joesuu Spa and Sanatorium. Built in 1960s it is evocative of the Soviet era — when it was launched as a health resort for collective farm workers — and even bears a plaque saying it is protected by the Estonian state as a heritage site, but is now renovated and features up-to-date spa treatments.

The landscape here is defined by the Baltic Klint, a 1200-kilometer-long erosional limestone escarpment which rises up to 50 meters above the Baltic Sea at some points. Starting on Öland island in Sweden and ending in the area south of Lake Ladoga in Russia, its Estonian section is 300 kilometers long, known as the North Estonian Klint and seen as a natural monument symbolizing Estonian national identity.

A ride along the shore will be memorable for the sea views, the splendid 19th-century Oru Park in Toila, which boasts 270 different species of bushes and trees, and the 30.5-meter Valaste waterfall, Estonia’s highest, among other attractions.

Earth Power

The depths of Ida-Virumaa contain large deposits of oil shale — used in thermal power plants — and thus hold the largest power capacity in Estonia. This resource was intensively exploited under the Soviets, with mountains of oil-shale ash left across the county standing as a kind of monument to the era.

Sergey Chernov / spt One of the massive oil-shale ash heaps turned into a ski resort near Kivioli, Estonia.

A unique and award-winning souvenir from Estonia is known as “Pruun kuld” (Brown Gold), an “oil-shale” chocolate produced in southern Estonia with the addition of bee propolis, but available only in the area.

Kukruse, a district of the Kohtla-Järve municipality, hosts the world’s only oil shale museum. Its permanent exhibition shows how oil shale forms, how it is discovered and produced and the history of its use. One of the rooms holds an exhibition of 80 “socialist realist” paintings titled “The Oil Shale Industry in Art,” once a much-appreciated artistic subject in the area.

The mineral was used in the Soviet nuclear program, which turned Sillamäe, where the facilities were located, into a highly secure town closed to outsiders. Workers were brought to the town from across the Soviet Union and a labor camp was established in the area where prisoners were used for the hazardous work.

The history of the settlement, which went under code names such as “Leningrad-1” or “Narva-10,” is on display at the Sillamäe Museum of History and Culture, where relics of the Soviet era — from military uniforms and propaganda to typical Soviet apartment interiors — are well represented, as well as the earlier history of the area.

The museum also holds a large collection of minerals, including Estonia’s dolomite, limestone and granite, and Soviet-era radios and irons.

To the Manor

Like the rest of Estonia, Ida-Virumaa has its share of old manor houses once belonging to Baltic Germans. Neglected and frequently transformed for agricultural use under the Soviets, a number of them have been renovated and turned into hotels, spas, restaurants and even museums.

Kukruse Manor — known as “Polar Manor” — in the village of Kukruse has been turned into a small yet state-of-the-art and well-researched museum dedicated to 19th-century Arctic explorer Eduard Gustav von Toll, who once owned the place and financed many of his polar expeditions from the manor’s profits.

The nearby Saka Cliff Hotel & Spa is located on a cliff above the Gulf of Finland. The complex, which also features a former Soviet border guard tower that has been turned into a conference hall, is near the Kivisilla waterfall and boasts a viewing platform with great views of the sea and the limestone coastline. A hiking trail leads 1.5 kilometers from the Sea Tower to the sandy beach and includes a climb down a 50-meter-high cliff via a stairway. In the 20th century, the manor was occupied alternatively by the Estonian coast guard, the Nazi Waffen SS and the Soviet army.

Sports and Adventure

A group of enterprising enthusiasts in Tuhamägi have found a use for an oil-shale ash hill, converting it into a ski resort. Launched in early February, the ash heap near the town of Kivioli has been transformed into a popular recreation center offering options for winter sports, with families visiting from as far away as Tallinn.

Half of the hill — which rises 173 meters above sea level — holds a ski slope with four downhill runs, from 400 to 700 meters, the other is a motocross center, where the two-day Kivioli Motocross Festival is due to be held in August.

Here visitors can rent ski equipment, have lunch at a freshly-opened café and stay overnight in the 30-bed Tuhamäe Hostel right next to the slope.

Sergey Chernov / spt A paper scale model of Narva’s pre-1940 center, which was bombed during WWII.

The Alutaguse Recreational Sports Center, which has rooms for 36 guests, saunas and a café, can also be visited year-round and is good for a holiday oriented toward nature and sports, including running, biking, Nordic walking and skiing.

Located in the hills, only 80 km from Narva, the climate there is drastically different. The center’s owner, Tarmo Kollo, says that last year a skiing competition was held as late as April 20. “When flowers blossom in Narva, there is still snow here,” he said.

The St. Petersburg Times was a guest of the Narva City Department for Development and Economy and the tourism cluster of Ida-Virumaa.

How To Get There

From St. Petersburg, three bus companies operate daily bus services to Narva. Lux Express departs from the Baltiisky Railway Station

(www.luxexpress.eu), Ecolines

(www.ecolines.net) can be picked up near Vitebsky Railway Station, while the more budget-friendly BalticShuttle

(www.balticshuttle.com), the most recent addition, departs from the Bus Station at 36 Obvodny Kanal Nab.

Where To Stay

Mäetaguse Manor

A hotel in a renovated manor in a small village, complete with a spa complex, pool, a restaurant and a bar.

Pargi 1, Mäetaguse. Tel: +372 333 1151. www.moisahotell.ee

Sergey Chernov / spt Narva’s Hermann Tower (l) faces off against Russia’s Ivangorod Castle across the Narva River.

Saka Cliff Hotel & Spa (Saka Manor)

Built in the 17th century with an old park starting right at the entrance, the renovated complex features a hotel with 46 rooms available both in the old mansion, which also hosts an a la carte restaurant, and in the spa hotel built in 2004.

Kohtla Parish. Tel: +372 336 4900. www.saka.ee

Narva-Joesuu Spa Hotel

This former Soviet sanatorium is now renovated and features up-to-date spa treatments.

Aia 3, Narva-Joesuu. Tel: +372 359 9529. www.narvajoesuu.ee

Where To Eat

Castell

Located in a tower of Narva’s Hermann Castle, this three-floor restaurant offers not only food but theatrical shows from chivalric times.

Peterburi mnt 2, Narva.

Tel.: +372 359 9257. www.castell.ee

Every decent hotel has a fine restaurant or two. The restaurants at the Inger Hotel in Narva (Puskini tn 28. Tel: +372 688 1105. www.inger.ee) and the Meresuu Hotel in Narva-Jouessu (Aia 48a. Tel: +372 357 9600. www.meresuu.ee) merit a mention,

as well as the restaurants in the above manors.