Ungurmuiža Manor (Latvian: Ungurmuižas kungu māja, German: Gut Orellen, also Herrenhaus Orellen) is a manor house made of wood in the historical region of Vidzeme, in northern Latvia [1]. The area was first mentioned in archiepiscopal documents in 1399. The manor was then called Urele, from which the word Orellen later emerged. The Latvian name Ungurmuiža (Ungern Castle) comes from the name Ungern, because the daughter of Unguri Barthold Rostherwe, a later owner, married into the „von Ungern“ family (ancient Baltic nobility) [2] and brought the manor as an inheritance into the marriage.
The manor house goes back to the Campenhausen family, namely Balthasar Campenhausen, who was admitted to the Swedish baronial rank with the permission of the Tsar, bought the estate in 1728 and had the manor house built in 1732. Shortly after the Great Northern War, it was forbidden to build stone buildings outside of Saint Petersburg. This is why this baroque house was built of wood and is one of the few that has survived the last 200 years.
The Campenhausen family initiated the last major renovation work to be carried out in 1910. In 1930 they wanted to build a children's holiday home, but this failed due to permits because there was no clean drinking water. Restoration work began in the 1970s. With independence, the estate came into the possession of the Raiskums community and the museum is managed by an association. In 2000, both the Swedish and Latvian governments donated funds for further restoration work, which is still ongoing. The Campenhausen family regularly visits the old property and supports the museum, but makes no ownership claims.
Let us return once again to Johan Balthasar Freiherr von Campenhausen (Russian: Иван Иванович Кампенгаузен) [3], who lived from 1689 to 1758. He was a Russian lieutenant general and governor general of Finland during the occupation of 1741–43. I do not want to go into a detailed history of the Campenhausen family here, but it is interesting to note his closeness to Nikolaus Ludwig Graf von Zinzendorf [4], who was a theologian, imperial count, founder and bishop of the Moravian Church ("Unity of the Brethren") and the writer of numerous hymns; some of his hymns are in the current Protestant hymnal (Evangelisches Gesangbuch). Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf was a guest at the Orellen estate as early as 1736. The education of the servants was promoted on the estate and also a school was built. The Moravian Church (Latin Unitas Fratrum, German Herrnhuter Gemeine) [5] goes back to the Bohemian Brethren (Czech Moravští bratři). Today the Daily Watchwords (Jahreslosungen, Losungen or Hernnhuter Losungen in German) [6] are very well known and we use them, for example, in Protestant communities such as the Protestant Church of Cologne-Dellbrück/Holweide [7]. I had already surprisingly found a church of the Moravian Church in Leh (Ladakh, India) and reported on it [8].
On the upper floor of the estate there are wall paintings with grenadiers who were given the facial features of Tsar Peter the Great. Other paintings by Georg Dietrich Hinsch from Limbaži were also discovered. They survived looting by the Bolsheviks and the population at the end of World War I and also during World War II. They are now protected behind plexiglass.
Orellen Estate consists not only of the manor house, but also the former schoolhouse, the manager's house, the outbuildings, the granary and a tea house in the old oak park can be visited. We had a rest there with cake and linden blossom tea. Linden blossoms were just being collected from the estate's linden trees.
Links and Annotations:
[1] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ungurmui%C5%BEa and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ungurmui%C5%BEa_Manor, but the article in English is much shorter and therefore contains less information.
[2] To be correct, one should speak of the von Ungern-Sternberg family.
[3] Johan Balthasar Freiherr von Campenhausen, born June 30, 1689 in Stockholm and died February 28, 1758 in Saint Petersburg. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balthasar_(I.)_von_Campenhausen
[4] "Nikolaus Ludwig Graf von Zinzendorf und Pottendorf (* 26 May 1700 in Dresden; † 9 May 1760 in Herrnhut) was a German Lutheran-pietistic autodidactic[1] theologian, imperial count, founder and bishop of the Moravian Church ("Unity of the Moravians") and the author of numerous hymns." https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolaus_Ludwig_von_Zinzendorf
[5] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herrnhuter_Br%C3%BCdergemeine and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moravian_Church
[6] "The Daily Watchwords (German: Herrnhuter Losungen) is an annual, globally distributed publication of the Moravian Church."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daily_Watchwords
[7] Evangelische Kirch in Köln Dellbrück/Holweide https://evangelisch-in-koeln-dellbrueck-holweide.de/
The daily mottos for Wednesday, September 11, 2024 are:
Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. (Psalm 51:12)
and:
The goal of all instruction is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith. (1 Timothy 1:5)
[8] The Moravian Church in Leh https://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-moravian-church-in-leh.html
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