Castles to control, not protect
Built to subdue the local population, not to defend it.
Pudelek (Marcin Szala) — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Члены семей Семёновых и Шакуриных: Юрий Поликарпович Шакурин (1938-2000). Загружено единственной наследницей. — CC BY-SA 4.0 · User:Yerachmiel C — CC BY-SA 4.0 · karel291 — CC BY 3.0
A red brick castle above the valley of the river Gauja near Sigulda, built in 1214 for the Bishop of Riga, and the clearest survivor of Latvia's crusader-era castles. The context is heavy: the thirteenth century is the century of the Northern Crusades, when German knightly orders invaded the lands of the pagan Baltic peoples and subdued them by sword and conversion. Castles like Turaida were not built to defend the population but to control it. The name itself comes from the local Livonian language and means the garden of God, and predates the castle. The cylindrical main tower can be climbed, and the view from the top over the Gauja valley is the best thing on the site. The reserve around the castle is larger than the castle itself: it holds an eighteenth-century wooden church, a Livonian archaeological mound, the Dainu kalns sculpture garden devoted to Latvian folk songs, and the grave of the Rose of Turaida, tied to a well-known local legend. Practical points: entry is ticketed and covers the whole reserve. The site is large and moving between its parts means walking up and down — allow at least two and a half hours. About fifty kilometres from Riga.
Built to subdue the local population, not to defend it.
Turaida is Livonian and means the garden of God.
Dainu kalns, sculptures devoted to the Latvian dainas.
Turaida, Gauja valley near Sigulda
Very short folk songs, usually four lines, passed down orally over centuries before being collected and written down in the nineteenth century. More than a million texts were gathered, the largest archive of its kind in Europe relative to population. Their content is about nature, work and the cycle of life, and little of it is Christian in the usual sense — which is what makes them a record of a pre-Christian culture.
Yes — they are effectively one destination. Sigulda is across the Gauja valley with its own castle and a cable car crossing the valley, and the whole area lies within Gauja National Park. A full day from Riga covers Turaida, Sigulda and a walk in the valley, and it is the best day trip from the capital.
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