Vyborg railway station is a
railway stationA railway station, train station, railroad station, or station yard is a facility at which passengers may board and alight from trains, and/or where rail-transported freight may be loaded or unloaded. Historically, the term depot has also been employed in North America...
located in the town of
VyborgVyborg is a town in Leningrad Oblast, Russia, situated on the Karelian Isthmus near the head of the Bay of Vyborg, 130 km to the northwest of St. Petersburg, 38 km south from Russia's border with Finland, where the Saimaa Canal enters the Gulf of Finland...
,
Leningrad OblastLeningrad Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . It was established on August 1, 1927, although it was not until 1946 that the oblast's borders had been mostly settled in their present position. The oblast was named after the city of Leningrad. The first governor of Leningrad Oblast was Vadim...
,
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
.
The original station building was built in 1913 but was destroyed in the
Continuation WarThe Continuation War The Continuation War The Continuation War was the second of two wars fought between Finland and the Soviet Union during World War II....
. The current station building was built in
SovietThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
times.
The original station building in Vyborg was designed by Finnish architects
Eliel SaarinenGottlieb Eliel Saarinen was a Finnish architect who became famous for his art nouveau buildings in the early years of the 20th century....
and Herman Geselius. The
graniteGranite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite has a medium to coarse texture, occasionally with some individual crystals larger than the groundmass forming a rock known as porphyry. Granites can be pink to dark gray or even black, depending on their...
station building was built in 1913 by Finnish State Railways now known as
VR GroupVR or VR Group is a state-owned railway company in Finland, and formerly known as Suomen Valtion Rautatiet until 1922 and Valtionrautatiet / Statsjärnvägarna until 1995. Its most important function is the operation of freight and passenger rail services...
but was destroyed as retreating Soviet troops exploded it in the
Continuation WarThe Continuation War The Continuation War The Continuation War was the second of two wars fought between Finland and the Soviet Union during World War II....
in 1941.
The original building bore a close resemblance to Eliel Saarinen's other famous work, the
Helsinki Central railway stationHelsinki Central railway station is a widely recognised landmark in central Helsinki, Finland, and the focal point of public transport in the Greater Helsinki area. It serves as the point of origin for all trains in the local VR commuter rail network, as well as for a large proportion of...
.
Vyborg railway station is a
railway stationA railway station, train station, railroad station, or station yard is a facility at which passengers may board and alight from trains, and/or where rail-transported freight may be loaded or unloaded. Historically, the term depot has also been employed in North America...
located in the town of
VyborgVyborg is a town in Leningrad Oblast, Russia, situated on the Karelian Isthmus near the head of the Bay of Vyborg, 130 km to the northwest of St. Petersburg, 38 km south from Russia's border with Finland, where the Saimaa Canal enters the Gulf of Finland...
,
Leningrad OblastLeningrad Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . It was established on August 1, 1927, although it was not until 1946 that the oblast's borders had been mostly settled in their present position. The oblast was named after the city of Leningrad. The first governor of Leningrad Oblast was Vadim...
,
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
.
The original station building was built in 1913 but was destroyed in the
Continuation WarThe Continuation War The Continuation War The Continuation War was the second of two wars fought between Finland and the Soviet Union during World War II....
. The current station building was built in
SovietThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
times.
Original building
The original station building in Vyborg was designed by Finnish architects
Eliel SaarinenGottlieb Eliel Saarinen was a Finnish architect who became famous for his art nouveau buildings in the early years of the 20th century....
and Herman Geselius. The
graniteGranite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite has a medium to coarse texture, occasionally with some individual crystals larger than the groundmass forming a rock known as porphyry. Granites can be pink to dark gray or even black, depending on their...
station building was built in 1913 by Finnish State Railways now known as
VR GroupVR or VR Group is a state-owned railway company in Finland, and formerly known as Suomen Valtion Rautatiet until 1922 and Valtionrautatiet / Statsjärnvägarna until 1995. Its most important function is the operation of freight and passenger rail services...
but was destroyed as retreating Soviet troops exploded it in the
Continuation WarThe Continuation War The Continuation War The Continuation War was the second of two wars fought between Finland and the Soviet Union during World War II....
in 1941.
The original building bore a close resemblance to Eliel Saarinen's other famous work, the
Helsinki Central railway stationHelsinki Central railway station is a widely recognised landmark in central Helsinki, Finland, and the focal point of public transport in the Greater Helsinki area. It serves as the point of origin for all trains in the local VR commuter rail network, as well as for a large proportion of...
. In the tradition of a pair of male human figures on either side of the main entrance of the Helsinki Central station, the Vyborg station had a statue of a
bearBears are mammals of the family Ursidae. Bears are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans, with the pinnipeds being their closest living relatives. Although there are only eight living species of bear, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Northern...
on a pedestal on either side of the main entrance.
Modern building
The modern station building, built in
SovietThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
times, represents the typical
StalinistStalinist architecture , also referred to as the Stalinist Gothic, or Socialist Classicism, is a term given to architecture of the Soviet Union between 1933, when Boris Iofan's draft for Palace of Soviets was officially approved, and 1955, when Nikita Khruschev condemned "excesses" of the past...
style. The station building has ticket sales, a
caféA café , also spelled cafe, is an informal restaurant offering a range of hot meals and made-to-order sandwiches. This differs from a coffee house, which is a limited-menu establishment which focuses on coffee sales. Depending on the jurisdiction, a café may be licensed to serve alcohol. The term...
, a magazine kiosk, a
currency exchangeCurrency exchange can refer to:* Bureau de change* Foreign exchange market...
office, and deposit boxes.
From 2009 the station will be served by
HelsinkiHelsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the southern part of Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, by the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it the most populous municipality in Finland by a wide margin...
-
Saint PetersburgSaint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city's other names were Petrograd and Leningrad...
high speed trains operated by
Karelian TrainsOy Karelian Trains Ltd is a joint venture agreed on 23 November 2006 between Russian Railways and VR Group to operate international express passenger rail services between Helsinki, Finland and Saint Petersburg, Russia. Karelian Trains is registered in Helsinki, VR and RZhD both own 50% of the...
, a joint venture between
Russian RailwaysRussian Railways , is the government-owned railway company of Russia. The company is one of the biggest railway companies in the world with 1.2 million employees and a monopoly within Russia...
and
VR (Finnish Railways)VR or VR Group is a state-owned railway company in Finland, and formerly known as Suomen Valtion Rautatiet until 1922 and Valtionrautatiet / Statsjärnvägarna until 1995. Its most important function is the operation of freight and passenger rail services...
. This will replace the current, much slower service.
See also
- Riihimäki-Saint Petersburg railroad
The Riihimäki–Saint Petersburg Railway is a long segment of the Helsinki–Saint Petersburg connection, which is divided between Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast in Russia and the province of Southern Finland in Finland...
- Vyborg–Joensuu railroad
The old Karelian railroad between Viipuri and Joensuu is a railway with broad gauge, which used to link Joensuu, Sortavala, Hiitola, Antrea and Viipuri...
External links