We made a short side trip to the town of
Cesis, which dates from the 13th century. Our tour was brief
and, unfortunately rainy--many of the photos we took were
unusable, but what you see here is a brief overview of our
visit. We walked from the outskirts of the city to the city
center (photo to the left). Visible in the background is the
church we would visit on our return. On the right is a photo of
the cafe where we enjoyed some pastries and tea as we waited for
the rain to abate.
We then journeyed down Liela Skolas ieala, which
appeared to be the Rodeo Drive of Cesis, lined with stately
buildings whose windows were filled with luxury goods. This may
be seen in the photo to the left. Continuing up the street, we
arrived at Unity Square, marked by the stelae in the center, and
offering a view of the regional court building, both shown in
the photo to the left.
From the Unity Square we headed west on Pils iela towards the
Cesis Castle. Ironically, just opposite the Proscecutors Office
was a Museum to Sirdsapziņas
Ugunskurs or the Burning Conscience Museum, a former
Soviet prison that is now dedicated to telling the
story of Lavian resistance to the Soviet occuption. The
exhibition's multimedia displays provide deep insight into the
local community's patriotism and motivation. A timeline covers
major events from 1939 until 1957 and extracts from local
newspapers draw parallels between propaganda and Soviet regime
policies. Below is a video of the museum.
Sirdsapziņas
Ugunskurs
(Burning
Conscience Museum)
Visiting the Castle:
One of the highlights of visiting Cesis is
touring the Cesis Castle, one of the most iconic and best
preserved medieval castles in Latvia. The foundations of the
castle were laid 800 years ago by the Livonian Brothers of the
Sword. The most prosperous period Cēsis Castle experienced was
during its next owners, the Teutonic Order. It became one of the
key administrative and economic centers of the Teutonic Order in
Livonia and was a seat of Landmeister in Livland. We gained
access via a gate just down from theSirdsapziņas Ugunskurs
(photo to the left). The gate opened unto a grassy square, and
around the square were the Cesis Exhibition hall (photo the
right) which unfortunately was closed, and the Art and History
Museum, where we purchased our tickets. This was no small feat,
as we were 
within an
an hour of closing time and it took strenuous persuasion by Sergey for us to gain
admittance, Exiting the Museum, our first stop was the building
across from it, which housed the Ancient Jewellry Smithy, where
the master craftsman reproduces jewellry from the time period of
the castle. This is shown in the photo to the left. From there
we journeyed down a path to the castle proper.
Like most castles,
the Cesis Castle is surrounded by a moat and access is gained
via a long and rather new looking wooden bridge, shown in the
photo to the left. The moat itself is now just an empty gully.
Passing under the entrance gate and into the ruins, our first
stop was a courtyard toward the end of the ruins, where we
rented a lantern, which is needed to navigate the dark inner
recesses of the castle. This is shown in the photo to the right.
Our first ascent up
the dark and winding stone stairs, stairs built for people
shorter than ourselves, was to tour the West Tower, the best
preserved of the three remaining Towers. As expected, it is a
series of circular rooms with wooden floors and narrow windows,
much like those at the Turaida
Castle we visited earlier in our travels. The photo to
the left shows the ground floor. The real attraction, however is
at the top of the tower, the Master's Chamber. It features a
domed ceiling and provides excellent views of the area. This is
shown in the photo to the right.
Our next darkness-cloaked trip
was to the top of the Southern tower, another candle-lit ascent
to the top, but this time the scene was quite different than the
climb to the top of the West Tower; while both offered splendid
views, the room itself had none of the grandeur of the Master's
Chamber, as shown in the photo to the left. However, the most
spectacular aspect of the tower is only visible on the descent
from the top of the tower--the splendid multimedia show that
uses the castle's turret as a backdrop upon which are projected
images detailing the history of the storied castle. The photo to
right shows this presentation, and it is shown in greater detail
in the video below.
Multimedia
Exhibition
in the Western Tower
Exiting the castle, we took in
two more sights before leaving the castle grounds. To the left
of the castle entrance was an area displaying medieval life in
all its forms--dress, cooking, and the creation of everyday
objects. In the photo to the left, a craftsman explains how
Latvians made the tools of everyday life. Following this
we took in a bit of the Garden Park, a lovely green area that
has the castle as its picturesque backdrop (photo to the right).
Capturing the Cesis
Castle Experience:
Static photos are limited in how they can capture an impression
of the place, as they are static images in a linear order. In
respect to Cesis Castle, this results in two short comings.
First, there is no way to connect the dots, establishing the
relationship of the photos to one another. In order to address
this limitation, we have included a video screenshot of the
virtual tour included on the Cesis
Castle
website. This will give readers some sense of how the
photos are connected. The second limitation is that the darkness
of the castle ruins really preclude photos and thus do not give
a very real impression of touring the castle. In order to
address this, we have included a snippet of a YouTube video by
AK Wolverine, a tour of the southern tower of castle, in the
hope of capturing some of the atmosphere of the castle tour. It
may be found below the video of the castle virtual tour. To see
all of the video, click here.
Our last visit was to St.
John's Church, one of the oldest medieval architectural
monuments in Latvia. It was built in the beginning of 13th
century during the Christianization of the Baltics by the
Livonian Holy Order. The order was located in Cesis, and
therefore the church and the town became one of the most
important centers of German power, and a key player in the
Hanseatic League. The church is 65 m long and 32 m wide
three-sphere basilica. Its western end has a massive 65 m
high bell tower with a 15 m high Gothic spire. The altar is
shown in the photo to the left, while its renowned organ is
shown in the photo to the right. The church is the site of
an international organ festival. Below is a video of the
church's interior.