Estonia > Narva

Narva

Narva can only be a border town; its fortress, which dates from the 15th I century, appropriately looks down, rather than up, at the Russian one of Ivangorod across the river which is now the NATO and EU border as wel; The fortress even survived months of Red Army shelling in 1944. Walk through its museum and art gallery, along its ramparts, and then along the river beside the bastions. Its grounds preserve what is probably the last standing statue of Lenin in Estonia. He of course looks East to Russia rather than West to Estonia.

The baroque 17th century Town Hall is a reminder of the Swedish perioc and the 19th century Lutheran and Orthodox Churches recall the religious struggles of that time between the Baltic Germans and the Russiars.