Yuriev (Dorpat, Tartu)

 In 1030, Prince Yaroslav the Wise, according to the chronicle, «went to the Chud’, and defeated them, and set up the city of Yuryev.» The population of it was mixed, Slavic-Finnish, with a significant proportion of local Finnish tribes. The fate of the town was not easy: there is information that in 1061 it was burnt by the Estonians, in 1211 — by the Latgals.

In 1224 the army of German knights and the Riga bishop Albrecht took Yuriev. Here was killed prince Vetseke. The Russian chronicle calls him «Prince Vyachko». Yuryev became a German city and was renamed Dorpat (today it is Estonian city Tartu). Its further history is associated with the German Order, its Livonian branch.

In Tartu, not a single building of the XIII century has been survived. The hill where Yuryev was located was rebuilt several times in the Middle Ages. There, on Domberg, the castle of the Dorpat bishop and the fortress of Dorpat were located. The place where the ancient settlement of Yuryev was located is accessible for research only by archaeologists. Some medieval finds have been transferred to Domberg Park, in particular, a tracker stone, which is associated with the pagan cults of the ancient Estonians.

Photos

Tags: castles and fortresses, before 13 century, 13 century, 14 century, 15 century, 16 century, The struggle for the Baltic until the 13th century, Baltic region