Sigulda 1 – The New Castle

 

Sigulda (German Segewold) is a small town in Latvia, about 50 km from Riga at the river Gauja [1]. The town has about 14,000 inhabitants. The area has been inhabited for a long time, and settlement remains date back to 200 BC. In the 11th century, the Liven settled there. However, the area was divided between crusaders in 1207. The Segewold Castle belonged to the Order of the Brothers of the Sword (Schwertbrüderorden), which later became the Livonian branch of the Teutonic Order (Livländischer Ordenszweig des Deutschen Ordens). Traders and craftsmen then settled near the Order's fortress. This is, however, the medieval Castle, which lies behind the New Castle and can also be visited. Why I am now dealing with the new castle will be explained in the text below, but let's first stay with the history of Latvia for a little while. For a long time, Latvia was under Russian / tsarist rule. After World War I, Latvia, like Estonia and Lithuania, was a sovereign state with a democratic constitution, but that only lasted until World War II, when the Baltic states were occupied by the Soviet Union and were part of the Soviet Union until its dissolution. Even then, Segulda was an interesting tourist destination. Today it is even more so, because hardly any visitor to Latvia will miss Sigulda.

Sigulda New Castle (Siguldas jaunā pils) [2] was built in 1878 in the neo-gothic style as a residence for the Kropotkin family. Was the family related to Pyotr Alexeyvich Kropotkin [Пётр Алексеевич Кропоткин] (1842–1921) [3]? Olga and Dimitri Kropotkin had built the new castle and I remembered Kropotkin's autobiography [4], which I had read when I was about 18 and had taken with me on holidays to the South of France. There I met Daggi (Dagmar) and she wanted to read something and I only had this book with me, but she wasn't enthusiastic about it. Unfortunately she wasn't enthusiastic about a romantic walk through the dunes either, so we just lay on the beach and that was alright. Pyotr Alexeyvich Kropotkin [Пётр Алексеевич Кропо́ткин] was an anarchist and yes, he was a cousin of Dmitry Nikolaevich Kropotkin [Дми́трий Никола́евич Кропо́ткин] (1836–1879), who was a major general in the Russian army and fought against any anti-tsarist movement [5]. So it is not surprising that he was shot in Kharkov by a terrorist (Grigory D. Goldenberg). He was the governor of Kharkov at the time of construction (1878-1881). The neo-gothic style was carried out by Jānis Mengelis from Cēsis. Material from older buildings dating back to the 17th century was used. Countess Olga Kropotkin was probably more involved in the construction than her husband. During World War I, the building was badly damaged but restored and used by the Latvian Union of Writers and Journalists. In the 1930s, the building was purchased by the Latvian Press Society and restored again. During World War II, it was used as the German headquarters for the Northern Division. After the war, it became a recreation house for high state officials. Since 2003, it has been the seat of the Sigulda District Council.

In addition to the park, there are also wooden houses. One was used as an Orthodox church during the Kropotkin family's time. There is also a restaurant in the castle. Other buildings in the complex have been converted and now house craftsmen, artists and designers. All in all it's well worth a visit.

Links and Annotations:
[1] Thorsten Altheide, Alexandra Frank, Mirko Kaupat, Heli Rahkema, Günther Schäfer: Reise Know-How Reiseführer Baltikum: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania. Reise Know-How Verlag, Bielefeld 2023. ISBN: 978-3-8317-3597-6, p. 362 ff. and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigulda  
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigulda_Castle  
[3] Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin [Пётр Алексеевич Кропоткин] (1842–1921) was a "Russian anarchist and geographer known as a proponent of anarchist communism". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Kropotkin  
[4] Petr A. Kropotkin: Memoiren eines Revolutionärs. Insel Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1973. ISBN: 9783458017219.
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kropotkin_family and https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%BF%D0%BE%D1%82%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%BD,_%D0%94%D0%BC%D0%B8%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%B9_%D0%9D%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87

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