Jaunpils Castle

About this place

Jaunpils Castle stands in Jaunpils Parish, Tukums Municipality, in the Semigallia region of Latvia, about 70 km west of Riga in a straight line. More a manor house than a fortified castle, it has now become a hotel. The castle is first mentioned in 1411 and was most likely built at the end of the 14th century, with its tower added in the 15th. In the first half of the 16th century, elderly brothers of the Livonian Order lived there. In 1576 it passed to Matthias von der Recke and stayed with his family until 1920; the poet Elisa von der Recke was one of them. In the late 17th century a third floor was added and it became a comfortable manor; it was rebuilt in 1906 by the architect Wilhelm Bockslaff, and its interiors were refitted in the 2000s. The white castle, with a red tiled roof and a round tower crowned by a small cupola, rises over a calm pond that mirrors it, surrounded by tall trees that turn gold in autumn and covered in snow in winter. Visitors walk around the castle and the pond, join interior tours, and some stay in its hotel rooms. It makes a day trip from Riga.