Medieval castle · Võru County · Võru
Kirumpää Kirrumpäh
The Bishop of Tartu founded Kirumpää in the mid-1200s on a high bank of the Võhandu River, where the trade and war road from Tartu to Pskov crossed it. It began as a small fortified tower house and was enlarged several times; in 1322 the Lithuanian prince Gediminas destroyed it. Taken again and again in the Livonian War and the wars of the 1600s, it was left in ruins after 1656, and its stones were later quarried to build the town of Võru.
Built / first recorded mid-1200s
Style Gothic episcopal castle
Condition Lost 1656
German name Kirrumpäh Today
Only a few tall wall fragments and earthworks remain on Võru’s northern edge.
Owners Tartu piiskopkond13. saj–1558 Good to know During the 1343 fighting at Otepää and Vastseliina, the Order’s southern headquarters was here. It was built where the Tartu–Pskov road crossed the Võhandu River. The Kirumpää settlement was destroyed in the war of 1656–1661 and never rebuilt. Photos through time 1920 · The ruins from the north1920 · The castle ruinsarchive · The Kirumpää ruinsarchive · A view of Võru with the Kirumpää ruinsarchive · The Kirumpää ruinsarchive · The Kirumpää ruinsarchive · Kirumpää castlearchive · Kirumpää castlearchive · The episcopal castle ruins near Võruarchive · The episcopal castle ruinsarchive · Kirumpää castle, a postcard1962 · On the way to the ruinsNearby
The buildings are stylized impressions, not surveyed models. Facts: mois.ee, Museum of Estonian Architecture, ERR, Wikipedia. Photos: MuIS and Wikimedia Commons, credited with each photo.
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