Amatciems is a small enclave 80kms. east of
Riga. It is a unique setting combining old and new. The old, of course,
is the natural beauty of the setting, unspoiled forests and fields. The
new aspect is the concept of community envisioned by the developer,
Čiris, who imagined a community of like-minded people living in a
nature-centric world. He describes Amaciems as "my vision [of] how to live in the
facilitated village and get on well with nature, wild animals and other
inhabitants of Amatciems. The Internal Rules are provided for
like-minded people who do not consider them as restricting their action
but promoting peace and silence. They determine that there are no
fences in the village, during the evenings and night time it is not
allowed to make a loud noise and remind that dog is a friend of yours
and can not be chained."
As can be seen from the banner
photo above, Amatciems is a community built in the forest surrounded
by a series of small manmade bodies of water. The houses tend to be
either traditional (photo on left), or contemporary with a nod to
traditional design,
as is the case of our hosts' house (photo to the right). What
they have in common is their privacy--each house is nestled within its
own natural coccoon, as few houses have a view of another dwelling.
The
area was a mixture of grasslands (not unlike our recent visit to �land,
Sweden) and heavily wooded areas. We saw both in our walks
around the area, including a mushroom foraging expedition with our
hosts! The grassland is shown in the photo at the upper left, while the
photo upper right shows the wooded areas and one of the manmade
ponds dotting the landscape. Another unique
feature of Amatciems was the wooden walkway that wound around a
considerable portion of the area, allowing easier access to
other parts of the enclave than trekking through the woods. It is
visible in the banner at the top of the page and in the photo
at the bottom right. One of the highlights of Amatciems is Latvia's
only
5-star hotel and spa, Jonathan Spa, overlooking the water. It is shown
in the photo 
bottom
right. Below this paragraph is an aerial
video of Amatciems,
shot
from this boardwalk. (My
flying skills must have been a bit rusty, as the first part of the
panorama is a bit blurry due to my rotating the Mavic Air too quickly.
The last part of the video is much clearer!)
Aerial
View of Amatciems
On
our way back from the boardwalk we had a
taste of rural life as Olga and Sergey stopped by a local farmhouse
to purchase some milk and fresh cheese, just as people might have done
100 years earlier. The photo to the left shows the farmhouse where the
eggs and cheesse are stored and sold, while the photo to the left shows
the barn.
Living in Amatciems seems to combine many of the comforts
of modern life with the rural pace and flavor of traditional Latvian
society.
