Turaida stone castle

The large and round tower, or Bergfried, is the main component of the castle, and that is why it is known as the main tower. 

It is meant for observation and protection, and it was the last refuge for the castle’s defenders during an attack.  The entrance of the Bergfried is on the third-floor level – 9.5 m above the ground.  There was a wooden ladder to get up to the entrance, and it was demolished if there was an attack.  The Bergfried was one of the first buildings of the castle.  There was a cone-shaped cupola at the top of the tower, and the walls had cornices and apertures for firearms.  Only the upper level was used to observe the surroundings and protect the castle.  Lower floors were not of use for this purpose, because the narrow windows were only meant to admit light.  The Bergfried was not populated during peacetime.  It may be that an arch on the eastern side of the tower once contained a crucifix with a small semi-circular roof above it. 

The main tower offers a view of a wonderful landscape.  The beautiful ancient Gauja River valley is to the East of the tower, and it is 70 to 80 metres deep. 

The Gauja turns to the North at Turaida and then flows through a major curve which leads to the river flowing South once again.  The curves of the Gauja offer golden sandbars and bays which sparkle in the sun.  The valley of the Gauja tributary that is the Vējupīte River can be seen in the distance.  To the right of that valley are the old radio relay tower and mobile communications tower of Sigulda.  To the Southwest is the tower of the Sigulda Lutheran Church.  Alongside it are the ruins of the ancient Sigulda Castle.  Work on it began in 1207, and it was built for the Order of the Brethren of the Sword and then the Livonian Order.

To the South are the buildings of the Sigulda luge and bobsled track that was created in 1986.  The aerial cable car that crosses the Gauja was installed in 1969.  The tram is 40 m above the Gauja, and its track is 1,060 m long.  The cable car connects the shores of the ancient river valley between Sigulda and Krimulda.

The viewing area offers a good look of the yard and the eastern structures of the Turaida Castle.  During the 14^th to the 16^th century, ancillary buildings were found here – a sauna, cellars, a brewery and a bakery.  On the south-eastern corner are the oldest parts of these structures.  To the South is the tower-shaped southern block of the castle, along with the southern forecastle.

To the West is the castle yard with the semi-circular tower that dates back to the 15^th century.  Also there are the western ramparts and the western wing.  The Sigulda-Inciems road runs along the so-called Estonian Ravine, and the Kārlis hill fort can be seen there.  To the right is the Krimulda Parish with 20^th century residential buildings and a water tower.

To the North are the Folk Song Park, Church Hill, and the gardener’s house.  Opposite it is the Linden Garden.  Several structures related to the Turaida Castle can be seen to the North – the northern forecastle that dates back to the 15^th century, along with the towers of the forecastle’s gates.  At the foot of the tower is the place for the redoubt.

The castles of the Livonian Order were economic centres, fortresses for knights, and convent or meeting buildings. Many residential rooms were needed, so the castles had several stories and several wings with a closed internal yard.

13^th century

Before the first stone castle was built on the Turaida hill fort in the early 13^th century, the wooden castle of the Liv ruler Kaupo was there.  Two years after it was burned down, in 1214, the first fortified building was erected – the so-called Fredeland Castellum (a Latin word for small castles, the word being a diminutive of the word “castrum,” which meant “castle”).  The size of the castle increased very rapidly, and by 1218, documents were recording the presence of the fortified Turaida castle, or Castrum Treyden.

During the first half of the 13^th century, the main defensive tower, or Bergfried, was erected at the top of the hill fort.  A defensive wall was installed in line with the local terrain.  The western side of the hill fort had a fortified residential building known as the “strong house.”

During the latter half of the 13^th century, further construction occurred in relation to the north-eastern and southern parts of the castle.  In the southern part, a defensive wall was installed, along with a defensive tower for the gate which led to the southern forecastle.  The first two floors were used for residential purposes, while the third floor was used to defend the castle.

The north-eastern part of the hill fort was also built up.  To the East of the main tower was a building with a semi-cellar that was typical of 13^th century architecture.  The eastern part of the hill fort was not built up during the 13^th century.

14^th century

The Turaida Castle was governed by the Livonian Order from 1298 to 1366.  As work on the eastern side of the building continued, a structure that was improved over subsequent centuries was erected.  16^th century documents describe it as a two-story residential building.  A stone staircase led to the wooden gallery on the second floor from the yard, and it led to interior rooms.  There is little information about the rooms, though we know some had vaulted ceilings.  The vaults were based on octagonal lime columns, and fragments of these have been found by archaeologists.

By the latter half of the 14^th century, a wall had been erected around the southern forecastle.  It was rebuilt in later centuries, thus narrowing the area of the forecastle.

15^th century

There was much rebuilding of the western part of the castle during the 15^th century.  A higher and thicker defensive wall was installed on the western side and toward the yard.  Along the north-western area, the western wing or new hall was erected.  This structure had a cellar, two floors and an attic.  The architecture was simple and in line with the military nature of the castle.

Firearms appeared in Livonia during the 15^th century, and this meant the need for a new type of defensive structure – towers for cannons.  A large semi-circular tower was installed in the western wing of the Turaida Castle to stretch partly beyond the defensive wall.  A small semi-circular tower was installed outside the defensive wall of the southern forecastle, as well.  On the western side of the tower-shaped southern wing, a residential addition was erected, while the southern wing received a stove to heat the building.  The southern forecastle’s southern section was used as a stable for the horses.

The northern side of the castle was strengthened during the 15^th century with the installation of a forecastle with an external gate and two defensive towers linked to a passage with stone walls on either side.

16^th century

The political situation in North-Eastern Europe underwent radical changes during the 16^th century, with powerful forces amassing against Livonia.  Rīga Archbishop Jasper Linde (1509-1524) strengthened the defensive systems of his castles because of this.  A round cannon tower with many firing apertures was built in the north-western part of the Turaida Castle yard to protect the northern forecastle.

The castle was larger during the 16^th century than at any time before or after, and it was the most highly fortified castle of its age.  Once firearms began to develop, however, the military importance of Turaida and similar stone castles began to recede.

17^th to 21^st century

The northern forecastle was sacked during the Polish-Swedish War (1600-1629), and the redoubt that was the last defensive structure of the Turaida Castle was built after the war was over.  Materials from the northern defensive wall were used for this purpose to a certain extent, and this ended the construction history of the Turaida Castle and fortress.

After a major fire in 1776, the military buildings were not renewed.  Local residents used the remaining buildings for economic purposes and to get building materials for their own structures.  In 1786, the owner of the Turaida Estate built a wooden residence for himself amid the ruins, and it was only torn down in 1953.  The Medieval buildings gradually deteriorated into romantic ruins, and they attracted the attention of students of antiquity.  There are maps, drawings and descriptions of the castle ruins from the 19^th and 20^th century.

The Turaida Castle ruins were put on the list of protected monuments in Latvia in 1925.  The first steps to conserve the Medieval structures began soon after.  Beginning in the 1970s, a major study of the castle and its territory was conducted to find ways of preserving and restoring them.  A number of ancient building elements were found during this process – some 4,700 ceramic tiles for stoves, approximately 3,500 fragments of window glass, some 7,500 construction nails, approximately 4,000 other building elements, etc.

Materials used in the construction of the Turaida Castle

Clay building materials were typical for the Turaida Castle – bricks, roof shingles and tiles.  These were manufactured near the castle.  Appropriate locations to extract red clay were found some 500 m to the North of the castle.  The quarries were later filled in to create fishing ponds for the local estate.

The size, colour and form of the bricks characterise the development of the Turaida Castle from the 13^th to the 18^th century.  The largest bricks, each weighing more than 8.5 kg, were used for the first residential buildings of the bishop, the main tower, and the tower-shaped southern wing of the building.  Medium-size bricks were used during the 15^th and 16^th century, when the most intensive work was done on the castle.

The window and door apertures of the castle were decorated with profile bricks.  Some bricks with Medieval plastering have survived.

The tiles used to cover the roof had curved edges and little hooks to fasten them together.  There were specific forms for these tiles to ensure that they were narrower at one end.  Semicircular tiles were used during the early days of the castle.  The roof was covered from the bottom, layering the tiles up to the top.  Gaps between lower tiles were covered with higher tiles.  The higher tiles were known as “monks,” while the lower ones were called “nuns.”  The semicircular tile roof weighed between 96 and 120 kg per square metre, and beginning in the 15^th century, lighter tongue-shaped tiles were produced instead.  During the 16^th century, Dutch masters were producing even lighter and more plastic tiles.  Dutch tiles appeared at the Turaida Castle shortly before the 1776 fire.

The Turaida District was part of the Rīga Bishopric from the beginning until the middle of the 13^th century, and then part of the Rīga Archbishopric from 1255 until 1566.

The territory of the archbishopric was established during the 13^th century on the basis of the former bishoprics of Ikšķile and Rīga.  The territory was established on the basis of peaceful Christianisation and during wars.  Between the 13^th and 16^th century, there were numerous political structures in the current territories of Latvia and Estonia  – the Rīga Archbishopric, the bishoprics of Kurzeme, Tartu, Saaremaa-Laanemaa, and the Livonian branch of the German Order (the Livonian Order).

The archbishop of Rīga reported directly to the pope.  He was the spiritual ruler of the Livonian Order and all of the bishoprics of Livonia and Prussia.  In terms of secular affairs, only the archbishopric was subject to the Rīga archbishop.  The archbishop’s council also played an important role in the governance system.  There was a Dome council, and the archbishop appointed the chief judge and a series of vassals.

Turaida was the centre of management and economy in the archbishopric.  The chief judge was a permanent resident.  The archbishop, as the ruler, sometimes visited to handle court hearings, conclude agreements with vassals, and manage the various properties.

The Turaida Castle has evidence of the spiritual and material culture of the Middle Ages – objects used by pilgrims, Medieval writing implements, lighting resources, fragments of ornate tiled stoves, a seal and a series of coins.

The Turaida Castle was home to the owner of the largest estate in the region, and it was also an economic centre. Until 1571, the castle was managed by the Livonian Knighthood, after which it was handed over at the command of the Lithuanian Senate to a former chief judge of the bishopric of Tartu, Elert Kruse. The Polish government distrusted him, however, and in 1576 he was replaced by the secretary of the Vidzeme administrator, Johann Biering. After the Livonian War, in 1583, Kruse returned to Turaida.

The Turaida Castle remained an administrative centre for its region and the local estate.  The buildings of the castle were in good shape and could be used for defensive purposes as needed.  Swedish King Gustav II Adolph presented the Turaida Estate to one of his advisors, Niels Shternsheld, and in 1562, he sold it Vidzeme nobleman and land judge Gotthard Johann Budberg for 21,000 Swedish talers.

Surveys conducted in the castle districts and estate lands of Vidzeme during the latter half of the 17^th century led to the production of maps for Turaida and its surrounding estates.  These maps were used for land audits, tax collections and estate reduction.  The plans only spoke to those lands which involved indentured servants.  Nearly all of the maps and plans from the Turaida Castle and its region in the 17^th century have survived.

Several reforms aimed at protecting the rights of farmers and citizens were implemented during the reign of Swedish King Charles XI.  The arbitrariness of the nobility was circumscribed to a certain degree.  The new laws allowed farmers to petition the king directly.  Among known complaints from Vidzeme farmers was one sent to the king by farmers in the Sigulda castle district, and it referred to an arendator called Andreas Koshkil.

The tower-shaped southern block of the building was used for defensive and residential purposes. 

During the Middle Ages, the building was used for unique fortification of the southern part of the castle.  It contained the defensive  tower of the gates and a residential area.

The tower-shaped southern block is similar to double-chapels with vaulted ceilings that are common in Medieval castles in Germany.  The Gothic double cross vault that covers the first floor is rare in Latvia.

An ancillary room and cellar were installed on the western side of the tower in the 14^th century, with a warm-air stove used to heat the facilities.  The southern wing was first mentioned in documents in 1590, when an audit of the castle was conducted.  The document says that the tower had three floors.

Before archaeological inspections began, the walls of the tower were preserved up to the second floor level.  Above the ruins of the tower was a layer of construction waste, bricks and earth that was approximately 2 m thick and had jasmine bushes growing on it.  Archaeological excavation began in 1979.  The collapsed upper part of the tower revealed 119 interesting bricks from Turaida with imprints of animal and bird footprints.  In the course of their research, the archaeologists obtained the knowledge that was necessary to preserve the Medieval building and to restore it to its original appearance.

Between the 13^th and the 18^th century, the castle was heated with fireplaces, warm air stoves, ceramic tile stoves, and other types of stoves. 

Archaeologists have found more than 20 different locations for stoves, and fragments of five warm air stoves have been preserved.  Such stoves were also used in other Latvian and European castles during the Middle Ages.

How warm air stoves worked

The stone chamber of the warm air stove of the southern part of the room has been preserved along with the brick floor from the 15^th and 16^th century.  The stove was fired from the outside.  As the rocks grew hot, they heated the surrounding rooms.  The air flowed upward via channels in the floor of the second story of the building, thus heating the workroom of the archbishop.

When the archbishops of Rīga were resident at the Turaida Castle, they used their workroom for receptions, religious rituals, reading and writing. 

The niche of the window has a seat that was typical of Medieval Castles.  They allowed people to use daylight for reading or other purposes.  The original brick wall of the room has survived, but it is covered now with a wooden floor.

The 16^th century interior of the room has been reconstructed, with an altar along the eastern wall.  The main component of the altar is a copy of an early 16^th century relief, “Jesus on the Cross.”  The original relief is in the door portal of a church in Rauna.  The furniture of the room is appropriate to the age – the table, chairs, writing tablet and chest for personal property.  The wax candles that were used to light the room are in a ceiling chandelier and in various portable candelabras.  Hygienic elements are also in the room – a cup with water, a bowl and a towel.

The everyday work of the archbishop involved not just official business, but also the canon of the priests of the Catholic Church – religious rituals and prayers.