The Tartu bishops built Uue-Kastre, probably after 1342, on the left bank of the Emajõgi 12 km before it flows into Lake Peipus, as a river barrier and toll station. Its oldest part was a square tower castle; by the second quarter of the 1400s it had been fully built out, and in the early 1500s a round cannon tower with gun chambers was added. Damaged in the Livonian War and the Polish–Swedish wars, it was finally destroyed in the Great Northern War.
The Emajõe-Suursoo nature center now stands on the castle site by the Emajõgi.
Owners
Tartu piiskopkond14. saj–1558
Moskva tsaaririik1558–1582
Poola-Leedu1582–1625
Rootsi1625–1704
Good to know
The castle was a river barrier and toll station on the Emajõgi.
Its oldest part was a square tower castle guarding the gate.
A round cannon tower with gun chambers was added in the early 1500s.
Photos through time
1700s · The castle ruins drawn by Johann Christoph Brotze Johann Christoph Brotze · Public domain1700s · Uue-Kastre in a drawing by Brotze Johann Christoph Brotze · Public domain2015 · The castle site, 2015 Athanasius Soter · CC BY-SA 4.02015 · The castle site by the Emajõgi, 2015 Athanasius Soter · CC BY-SA 4.0
