Vastseliina Castle Ruins, Vastseliina, Estonia

The Vastseliina Castle was a castle of the Livonian Order, Bishopric of Dorpat. It was constructed in 1342 by the Landmeister Burkhard von Dreileben as part of the border fortifications of Old Livonia against Novgorod, Pskov and later Moscow. In the Middle Ages, Vastseliina Castle was well known in the Catholic world as a popular destination for pilgrims. They worshipped the holy cross in the castle chapel and a visit to the chapel gave them sanctification for 40 days – it was first validated by Pope Innocentius VI in 1354.

The castle met its end during the Great Northern War when it was demolished by Russian troops (1702). Today the ruins are open to the public.

Reference: Wikipedia, VisitEstonia

User Reviews

Janis Jukonis (3 years ago)
Interesting walk around old castle walls, towers

Artemi Ollin (3 years ago)
Interesting spot to visit with a mixture of modern architecture and medieval ruins.

Eero Ringmäe (3 years ago)
Impressive ruins, but the museum has a pretty limited exposition, so I recommend just going for the ruins area ticket (3EUR) and avoiding the museum ticket (9EUR). You can spend the 6EUR you saved in the local pub situated in the same building. Watch out with kids - the parking lot is across the road (so kids can run in front of a car) and the ruins area can be a bit tricky to navigate for kids under 6-7 years old - some very steep stairs, some edges to potentially fall off.

Anang Widhi Nirwansyah (4 years ago)
This place is very beautiful and offers marvelous views on the medieval castle and surrounding nature. Pope of Rome gave indulgence to all visitors of the castle chapel where once a miracle tool place. Since that Vastseliina Episcopal Castle is destination of pilgrimage. Nowadays a newly built Pilgrims House with remarkable exposition gives an overview of pilgrimage and offers possibilities to experience of pilgrims life. This building has also great arcchitecture and got annual architecture reward of Estonia in 2018 (TripAdvisor)

Dāvids Brics (4 years ago)
The ruins are beautiful, with nice landscape around and views from towers. Near by there is hiking trails and two small rivers with dozens of turns. Worth time to look at this 14th century castle ruins. There is pretty big parking lot and a museum too.

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Photo from Flickr, copyright Govisity / Tip na Trip / kosice.guide

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