It was called the Vyborg Notre-Dame. It was depicted in panoramic photographs and greeting cards. Everyone without exception admired it. The refinement of the Gothic spire, the monumentality of the main building, the spacious hall with painted vaults and a majestic organ. Now, only the foundation and the plinth of the building with the underground part remain of this masterpiece of northern Gothic architecture. We are talking about the new cathedral (Finnish: Viipurin tuomiokirkko), the main Lutheran church of Vyborg, which no longer exists. In 1925, it was granted the status of the cathedral of the Vyborg diocese.

Two Lutheran congregations operated in Vyborg: the Swedish-German (the Cathedral of Peter and Paul) and the Finnish (the rural parish church, the former cathedral of the Dominican monastery). Since in the second half of the 19th century the rural parish church could no longer accommodate all the parishioners of the Finnish community, a decision was made to build a new, larger church building for the Finnish urban congregation, established in 1881. The architectural competition was won by the Vyborg architect Eduard Dippel. Construction of the new red-brick building in the Neo-Gothic style began in 1889, and on December 3, 1893, the church was consecrated. Thus, a significant architectural and urban planning solution for the late 19th century was implemented in a relatively short time.

The plots opposite were occupied by the governor’s residence and the Viklund house; nearby were the Vyborg post office and the Finnish folk school building. This formed a new city center. The new cathedral was a source of pride for the city’s residents and admiration for visitors, who called it the “Vyborg Notre-Dame.” Since the late 19th century, the majestic Neo-Gothic church was depicted on many postcards featuring views of the city. The new cathedral was captured in the works of the outstanding Finnish artist Hugo Gerhard Simberg.

Later, with the development of Functionalism as the leading style of Finnish architecture in the 1920s–1930s, theorists of modern architecture began to criticize the artistic merits of the Neo-Gothic church, contrasting it with such unadorned structures as the Vyborg library building nearby, designed by Alvar Aalto. In particular, Uno Ulberg, who served as the chief architect of Vyborg, believed that the cathedral had neither historical nor architectural value.

The church building suffered heavy damage during the Soviet-Finnish War (1939–1940) and the Great Patriotic War. After the start of the Soviet-Finnish War in the winter of 1939, the apse of the cathedral was damaged by bombing from Soviet aviation.

In 1940, after the city was transferred to the USSR, the Leningrad Commission for the Protection of Monuments included the cathedral in the list of valuable architectural objects, but it was not restored. Even greater damage was inflicted on the building by aerial bombings during the Great Patriotic War. In October 1941, architect Uno Ulberg developed a plan for the restoration of Vyborg, which envisaged dismantling the church building down to the foundation level and constructing a new church in a modern style. This project was not implemented by the Finnish authorities, but in the postwar period, under Soviet rule, the church walls were blown up in 1953 under the pretext of building a new Vyborg theater, which, however, never began construction. The parish house of the destroyed church was spared and transferred for use by cultural institutions.

The exterior of the cathedral combined the refinement of the Gothic spire with the monumentality of the main building volume, while the interior was a majestic hall with painted vaults, an altar, and a large organ. The hall accommodated about 1,800 parishioners. The building had three naves oriented from east to west, intersected near the altar by a transept (a transverse nave). The choir was adjacent to the hall, with an attached chapel room. The western facade was decorated with a tall four-sided bell tower, flanked by two small stair towers. The 70-meter-high bell tower housed three bells, whose low tones carried very far. A small tower with a cross adorned the roof ridge above the crossing. The monumentality of the structure was enhanced by typical Gothic elements: massive buttresses and flying buttresses that reinforced the outer walls, as well as elongated windows with trefoils.

The church vaults were painted by artist Lauri Välke, the altar image was created by painter Pekka Halonen, and the carved wooden pulpit was the work of sculptor Hannes Autere. In 1895, the Finnish organ master of Danish origin Jens Alexander Zachariassen made a 45-stop organ for the church (at that time the largest in Finland). This instrument was replaced in 1929–1930 by an even larger organ from the Gebrüder Rieger company, manufactured in Silesia. The instrument had 76 stops, 4 manual keyboards, a pedalboard, more than 4,500 pipes, and was among the largest in Northern Europe.

To date, the foundation and plinth of the building with the underground part have been preserved. The center of the cathedral’s crossing is marked by a flowerbed with a pedestal made of granite blocks from the blown-up cathedral, on which, in the postwar period, there was a monument to Stalin, then a sculptural composition depicting pioneers called “Happy Childhood,” and later a decorative planter. Since April 21, 2017, a commemorative granite plaque dedicated to the history of the church has been installed on the pedestal with the planter. It was installed at the initiative of the St. Petersburg architect-restorer Igor Lvov.

At the monument to the White Finns on the site between the library and the cathedral, military and civilian burials appeared at different times (more than 900 people, mostly residents of Vyborg). A book dedicated to these burials has been published in Finland. The outlines of the sunken graves are easy to distinguish: the ground surface in this area is wavy. Attempts to improve the burial site near the cathedral have been made repeatedly, but to this day it remains only a resting place for townspeople, marked by a single memorial plaque.

 Sources:

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Cathedral_(Vyborg)

https://vyborg.tv/kultura/novyj-kafedralnyj-sobor-v-vyborge-mogut-vosstanovit/