Viipuri

Viipuri, known in Russian as Vyborg, is a city on the Karelian Isthmus at the head of Vyborg Bay on the Gulf of Finland. Today it lies in Leningrad Oblast, Russia, near the Finnish border, and serves as an administrative and port center in the region. The historic center preserves a mixture of Finnish, Swedish, and Russian influences, with several landmarks dating to medieval and modern eras.

Viipuri originated as a fortified settlement founded in 1293 by the Novgorod Republic to protect trade routes and assert control over the Gulf of Finland. The medieval Vyborg Castle dominates the town and embodies the long military importance of the site. Over the centuries the town changed hands between Sweden and Russia and developed as a regional center in both powers. In 1721, following the Great Northern War, Viborg/Vyborg was ceded to the Russian Empire. After the 1809 Finnish War, Viipuri became part of the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland within the Russian Empire and developed as a major Finnish city.

In 1939–40 the Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union resulted in Viipuri’s cession to the USSR by the Moscow Peace Treaty. Much of the Finnish population evacuated, and the city was renamed Vyborg. After World War II, the area remained in Soviet hands and was repopulated with Russians and other Soviet citizens. The city today retains sites such as Vyborg Castle and a historic old town, while continuing as a regional administration and port center. Aalto’s Viipuri Library, completed in 1935–38, is noted as a landmark of Finnish modernist architecture.