Details
Founded: 1757Category: Religious sites in Latvia
Historical period: Part of the Russian Empire (Latvia)
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Igene church is one of the few wooden churches in Latvia. It was built in 1757. The shape of the dimension, layout and proportions of the church are archaic bearing evidence of preservation of ancient traditions of wooden craft. The church was and financed by the owner of Igene Manor Alexander von den Brincken. The one-nave log building is planked with horizontally painted boards, there is a polygonal apse, sacristy and a square bell tower with a polygonal roof peak brought forward from the building.
There are several valuable items in the church: the altar (1752) and pulpit, which were not very successfully painted in 1932. During the restoration, when the top layer of the black colouring was cleaned, paintings were uncovered, which indicate that the pulpit and the altar are older than the church itself. The fitting of the door lock (18th century) and the wind-cock on the tower (1757) are peculiar.
References:Easter Aquhorthies stone circle, located near Inverurie, is one of the best-preserved examples of a recumbent stone circle, and one of the few that still have their full complement of stones. It consists of a ring of nine stones, eight of which are grey granite and one red jasper. Two more grey granite stones flank a recumbent of red granite flecked with crystals and lines of quartz. The circle is particularly notable for its builders' use of polychromy in the stones, with the reddish ones situated on the SSW side and the grey ones opposite.
The placename Aquhorthies derives from a Scottish Gaelic word meaning 'field of prayer', and may indicate a 'long continuity of sanctity' between the Stone or Bronze Age circle builders and their much later Gaelic successors millennia later. The circle's surroundings were landscaped in the late 19th century, and it sits within a small fenced and walled enclosure. A stone dyke, known as a roundel, was built around the circle some time between 1847 and 1866–7.
