Porkuni (german: Borckholm) is a village in

Tapa Parish Tapa Parish ( et, Tapa vald) is a rural municipality in Lääne-Viru County in northern Estonia. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Tapa. It is located 70 km east of Estonia's capital, Tallinn. History Tapa ...

Lääne-Viru County Lääne-Viru County ( et, Lääne-Viru maakond or ''Lääne-Virumaa'') is one of 15 counties of Estonia. It is in northern Estonia, on the south coast of the Gulf of Finland. In Estonian, ''lääne'' means western and ''ida'' means east or easter ...

, in northern

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, an ...

. The settlement is located around the

Lake Porkuni Lake Porkuni is a lake in Porkuni, in northern Estonia. It's the source of the Valgejõgi River. See also *Battle of Porkuni (1944) Porkuni Porkuni (german: Borckholm) is a village in Tapa Parish, Lääne-Viru County, in northern Estonia. ...

, which is the source of the Valgejõgi River. In 1944, the

Battle of Porkuni Battle of Porkuni ( et, Porkuni lahing) was the largest engagement between Estonians serving in the Red Army and Estonian pro-independence and Waffen-SS units. It took place on 21 September 1944 between Lake Porkuni and the Sauvälja village ab ...

was fought in the area.

Porkuni castle

In 1479, a castle was built on an island in the lake by the bishop of Tallinn Simon von der Borch. Porkuni castle (german: Schloss Borkholm) was a four-sided structure surrounding a central courtyard, where a small church stood. In each corner of the castle stood a cannon-tower, and there was also a gate tower which is still preserved, albeit with a few later alterations. Judging from the remains, the castle was built in different stages and the walls were gradually made higher. The castle was destroyed during the

Livonian War The Livonian War (1558–1583) was the Russian invasion of Old Livonia, and the prolonged series of military conflicts that followed, in which Tsar Ivan the Terrible of Russia (Muscovy) unsuccessfully fought for control of the region (pr ...

In 1870–74, a new manor house was built at the site by the landowner at the time, Otto Ludwig von Rennenkampff. Perhaps not surprisingly, it is built in a

neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style, with turrets and other details inspired by a romantic perception of the Middle Ages. The ceremonial rooms of the manor, on the first floor, have been restored. The interior also houses a

wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a wood-like "grain" ...

staircase and a noteworthy

art nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...

cocklestove A masonry heater (also called a masonry stove) is a device for warming an interior space through radiant heating, by capturing the heat from periodic burning of fuel (usually wood), and then radiating the heat at a fairly constant temperature ...

. The manor house and grounds is now owned by UK telecommunications operator aql.

References

External links

Porkuni castle
at Estonian Manors Portal {{Authority control Villages in Lääne-Viru County Castles in Estonia Manor houses in Estonia Kreis Wierland Tourist attractions in Lääne-Viru County