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Description
The eastern border of Livonia was mainly formed already in the first half of the 13th century and the first belt of fortresses here was probably ready by the end of the 13th century. The first fortresses were not built on the border but further inland. The first decades of the 14th century brought no changes in the situation. Early in 1340 the relationship with Russians deteriorated again . Provincial master Burchard von Dreileben planned a campaign against Pskov and demanded the help of Tartu bishopric. The provincial master began to build another belt of border fortresses.
On the Annunciation Day, March 25, 1342, the building of fortresses in Marienburg and Vastseliina began. The latter was called the fortress of the Virgin Mary , but it soon acquired the name of New ( vastse ) Town (Castrum Novum, Neuhausen, Nyhusen, Nowogrodek). The name is probably the result of a chronological comparison with the older Kirumpää fortress. The first written records of Kirumpää fortress date from the year 1322. This is one of the possible explanations for the origin of Vastseliina`s name. The fact that the communications of southern Old Livonia with Pskov and other parts of Russia ran mainly through Vastseliina gives testimony of its importance .
Vastseliina was not only remarkable as a border castle . One can find a letter from the Archbishop of Riga to Pope Innocent VI from the year 1354 in the register of supplications in Avignon , which describes a miracle that happened in the chapel of Vastseliina castle. On a September night in 1353 music was heard from the empty castle chapel and people saw two wax candles burn with a supernatural light . The cross , which was otherwise attached to the wall in the northern part of the altar , was now standing in the middle of the altar without any support . The cross was still there during the writing of the letter in January 1354. Pilgrims started to flow to Vastseliina both from Livonia and Germany after what happened and many who were blind and deaf had their sight and hearing restored. The Archbishop of Livonia asked the Pope in his letter for forgiveness of sins to the visitors of the chapel, giving the following reason for his request: the growth in the number of pilgrims would provide funds for the extension of the chapel in the borderlands of Christendom. So the visitors of Vastseliina were granted a forty -day indulgence. Pope Eugene renewed the indulgence in 1342.
There are records of pilgrimages to the chapel in the 15th and 16th centuries. In the first century of its existence the castle was not involved in much military action. Campaigns conducted against the surroundings of Vastseliina did not concern the castle as a rule. The castle was systematically under siege for the first time in 1463 but without any result. The castle surrendered to the Russian forces only in the Livonian War, after a siege of three weeks, on June 30, 1558 and was controlled by them till the end of the war. According to the conditions of the Jam Zapolski peace treaty the castle was surrendered to Poles in 1582.
Vastseliina castle repeatedly featured in the wars of the 17th century. During that time, in 1625, it came under the control of Swedes for a longer period. By that time Vastseliina castle had lost most of its former significance.