I had already mentioned the Medieval Castle [1] and promised to look into it in more detail and introduce it here.
Latvia Travel has a detailed German text [2] on the Medieval Castle, which roughly corresponds to the Russian text, but there is only a short text in English (approx. 10%), but on the other hand large parts of the German text correspond to the English Wikipedia article [3]. The detailed texts go into too much depth, so I recommend the English Wikipedia article to interested readers as a starting point.
The Medieval Castle was built in 1207 as a fortress and later became a convent. The Gauja Valley was a good starting point, as various water and land routes already ran through it at that time. The crusader order was the Livonian Brothers of the Sword who were later incorporated into the Teutonic Order, they officially called themselves „The Militia of Christ of Livonia“. Who were their members? You could say: warrior monks. When I hear this expression, I immediately think of Otto (Kevin Kline) and the attitude of the Buddhist warrior monks in the film “A Fish called Wanda” [4]: „It's a Buddhist meditation technique. Focuses your aggression. The monks used to do it before going into battle.” [5]
Sigulda Castle controlled the waterways from the left bank of the Gauja, while on the right, just a few kilometers away, stood the Bishop's Castle Turaida. At this point, it becomes clear to me that I have to summarize more about the history of the Baltic countries in a separate blog post. In the 13th century, there were four autonomous territories in the area we now call Latvia: the Riga Archbishopric, the Livonian Order State, the Courland Bishopric and the city of Riga. The Teutonic Order ended its conquest of the Latvian lands in 1290.
In the next few centuries, the structure of Sigulda Castle suffered greatly. During the Polish-Swedish War (1601-1621) the castle was largely destroyed. In 1737 it came into the possession of Count Peter Lacy, but it was not until 1867 that a gate was set up in the outer bailey. The Kropotkin family then built a new castle on the outer bailey. In the 20th century, several conservation works were carried out on the walls, as it had already developed into an object of touristic interest. In 2011 the castle was reconstructed, so that the south and north towers of the castle may now be visited.
Links and Annotations:
[1] “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, which later became the Livonian branch of the Teutonic Order." https://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2024/08/sigulda-1-new-castle.html
[2] https://www.latvia.travel/de/sightswurdigkeit/burg-der-livonischen-ordersbruderschaft-von-sigulda (German) and https://www.latvia.travel/en/sight/livonian-order-sigulda-castle (English)
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigulda_Medieval_Castle
[4] “A Fish Called Wanda is a 1988 heist comedy film directed by Charles Crichton and written by and John Cleese.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Fish_Called_Wanda
[5] https://www.quotes.net/mquote/1183907
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