Turaida Castle

Sigulda, Latvia

Turaida Castle is a recently reconstructed medieval castle in Turaida. The castle was originally constructed in the Brick Gothic style in 1214 under Albert, archbishop of Riga, on the site of the destroyed wooden castle of the Livonian leader Caupo of Turaida. Construction and development of the fortifications continued to the 17th century, when the castle started to lose its strategic importance. It was badly damaged by fire in 1776 and not reconstructed, and in the course of time fell into ruin.

Restoration began in the 1970s and a castle wing is now the centrepiece of the Turaida Museum Reserve, which also includes the oldest wooden church in Vidzeme and its surrounding Livonian cemetery, containing for example the the grave of Maija, the Rose of Turaida, a sculpture park celebrating Latvian folksong and the beautifully landscaped castle grounds. The current count of Turaida is Kristaps Peake and it maintains a small garrison.

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Address

Gauja National Park 4, Sigulda, Latvia
See all sites in Sigulda

Details

Founded: 1214
Category: Castles and fortifications in Latvia
Historical period: State of the Teutonic Order (Latvia)

More Information

www.latvia.travel
en.wikipedia.org
www.pilis.lv
www.inyourpocket.com
www.turaida-muzejs.lv

Rating

4.5/5 (based on Google user reviews)

Interesting Sites Nearby


Sigulda Castle Ruins (1,8 km)
Sigulda New Castle (1,9 km)
Krimulda Castle Ruins (1,7 km)


Cesis Castle (29,2 km)
St. John's Church (29,2 km)
Birini Palace (13,4 km)
Lielstraupe Castle (19,2 km)
Lielvarde Castle (52,4 km)
Ikskile Church Ruins (46 km)
Dikli Manor (48,6 km)

User Reviews

Elena Krumgold (2 years ago)
Beautiful place. Take your camera with you and have a good shoes for walking in the area.
Angela Duffy (2 years ago)
WOW! Excellent place, we both absolutely loved it. So picturesque, friendly place, it was a Beautiful Day. Well worth the money, nice little cafe serving homemade cakes and pastries. Wish we had longer here just Beautiful x
Tanya Simchuk (2 years ago)
A fun place to go to. The park around it is adorable. However, on Sunday there can be too many visitors. The view from the tower is great. If you want to use the telescope inside the main tower, it's better to have 0.5 euro cents. :)
Lalit Mahapatra (2 years ago)
I loved the serene location of the castle. And the view from the tower was stunning particularly because of the autumn trees all around the place. If you're in Latvia then this is a must visit.
Thomas Ploner (2 years ago)
Stunning castle in a beautiful garden. Lots of well made exhibits (and attractions like bow shooting) in and around it. Definitely worth a visit. You can enjoy a great view of the (reddish stone) castle and the river Gauja from the top of the defense tower. There's a parking place nearby (parking fee) and the castle is easily accessible within minutes.
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The first residence on the site was founded by bishop Stanislas Thurzo in 1497. The building was in a Late Gothic style, with a modicum of Renaissance detail. During the Thirty Years' War, the castle was sacked by the Swedish army (1643).

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UNESCO lists the palace and garden among the World Heritage Sites. As the nomination dossier explains, 'the castle is a good but not outstanding example of a type of aristocratic or princely residence that has survived widely in Europe. The Pleasure Garden, by contrast, is a very rare and largely intact example of a Baroque garden'. Apart from the formal parterres there is also a less formal nineteenth-century English garden, which sustained damage during floods in 1997.

Interiors of the palace were extensively used by Miloš Forman as a stand-in for Vienna's Hofburg Imperial Palace during filming of Amadeus (1984), based on the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who actually never visited Kroměříž. The main audience chamber was also used in the film Immortal Beloved (1994), in the piano concerto scene.

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