The gates
Red brick above the moats.
Scotch Mist — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Ivo Kruusamägi — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Scotch Mist — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Laima Gutmane — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Laima Gutmane — CC BY-SA 4.0
Daugavpils Fortress is a huge early 19th-century stronghold in the city of Daugavpils in southeast Latvia, the only fortification of its kind in Northern Europe preserved without significant alteration. It feels like a whole town, with streets, barracks and coloured buildings, and the Mark Rothko Art Centre occupies a former arsenal. Work began in 1810 by decree of Tsar Alexander I, just before Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812. About 10,000 workers built it in two shifts, and a French force attacked while it was still unfinished. War and floods slowed progress, so it was not fully completed until 1878. It housed the Latvian army between the wars, then a military school from 1948 to 1993. You enter over timber bridges across green moats, towards gates of red brick and stone topped by arches and ornament. Inside are red and white buildings, long green barracks, a big white horse sculpture on the square and an old cannon before the pump house. Earth ramparts run around the site, and a technology centre fills some of the vaulted halls. It is 189 km in a straight line from Riga, so staying overnight in the city is best, and about 42 km from Aglona Basilica. UK travel advice notes restrictions near the Belarus border, which is not far away, so do not enter the border zone without a licence. The site is large, so wear comfortable shoes. Parts of it remain derelict, so stay out of closed buildings.
Red brick above the moats.
A sculpture on the square.
In the old arsenal.
Daugavpils, southeast Latvia
Yes, though parts are derelict, so stay out of closed buildings.
The Belarus border is not far, so do not enter the zone without a licence.