Ivangorod is a fortress designed to be looked at from the other bank. Raised in 1492 by order of Ivan III, it was placed deliberately opposite the Livonian castle of Narva, on the far side of the river, so that Russian power would answer the Western stronghold across the water. The confrontation still stands: two silhouettes, two sets of towers, a few hundred metres and an international border between them. Behind Ivangorod's long curtain walls lie successive enclosures added as artillery evolved, corner towers, and churches within the courtyard. Filmed in 4K from the ramparts, the riverbank and the air, the programme reads the site as a lesson in frontier architecture and as one of the most photogenic border landscapes in Europe, where centuries of rivalry are legible in a single frame.
