A picture accross the border: what you can see here is the Ivangorod fortress in Russia -
but the picture has been taken from the Estonian side of the Narva river.

This river has always been an borderline: the Danes builded the "Herrmansfeste" at the Estonian river bank and the Russian Zars
builded Ivangorod - documenting each other their power.
Later it was the border between Sweden and Russia.

During the 2nd world war Narva has been destroyed almost completely by the Russian air force in a battle with the Germans.
Today Narva has nothing much to offer except of this two fortresses on the river banks and the beaches in Narva-Jõesuu
Also Narva can be counted almost as a Russian city since this "minority" counts for about 95% of the local population there.
You will not find easily people who are able to speak in Estonian or even English - tourist facilities are poor, menues and
other signs often written in Kyrillic (although officially not allowed).


Other cities in the area are Kohtla-Järve and Sillamäe. In these two towns you can find a lot
of interesting samples of Stalinistic Archiecture. You can still feel a bit the old Sowjet spirit there
Despite the high percentage of Russian speaking population (about 70%) you still feel to be in Estonia (which is different in Narva definetely!)