Location: Cēsis Map
Construction: 1209
Cēsis Castle or Wenden Castle in German is a medieval castle located in Cēsis region of Latvia. Cesis Castle was constructed on the left bank of Gauja River in 1209 by Livonian Brothers of the Sword. It was intended to protect conquests of the Crusaders in the lands they recently conquered. It served as an official residence of the Order's Master from 1237 till 1561. Its walls measured a thickness of 4.7 m. During Livonian War with Russian tsar Ivan the Terrible sent an army to take the citadel. Remaining defenders of the castle blew themselves up in the Western Tower, destroying Western military fortifications so it would not fall to the enemy forces. Cēsis Castle was partially reconstructed in 1582 by the Poles who also established Catholic bishopric with a centre here. The castle was finally destroyed by the Russian armies in 1703 during Great Northern War. It was abandoned and was not used ever since.
History
Origins (13th century)
In 1207,
Cēsis, along with other territories on the left bank of the Gauja,
came into the possession of the Order of the Sword Brothers, but the
Vendian wooden castle on Riekstu Hill (now Castle Park) became the
seat of a small unit of the Order's Knights. The well-equipped and
strategically located Veccēsis Castle (German: Alt-Wenden) served as
an important administrative and military center of the Order of the
Sword Brothers - a gathering place for the Order's troops and a
support point for the subjugation of Estonian lands and protection
of newly acquired territories. The Knights of the Order of the Sword
Brothers had only a temporary residence in the Vend Castle in
Riekstukalns. According to the evidence provided by Indrikis in the
Livonian Chronicle, in 1218, next to the Vendian castle, the sword
brothers already had their own castle, the construction of which
probably began around 1213 or 1214.
For the construction of
the new stone castle, the sword brothers chose the corner of the
highland next to Riekstu Hill. By digging the castle ditch, the
castle builders revealed the richness of the depths of the earth,
characteristic of Cēsis - dolomite, which was used as a basic
material in the construction of all parts of the castle. The
location of the quarries right at the foot of the construction site
greatly facilitated and accelerated the construction of the castle.
Unfortunately, no specific information has been preserved about the
castle's builders, but it must be assumed that the construction work
was carried out mainly by masters from German lands - stonemasons,
bricklayers and carpenters - with the help of Livonian local
craftsmen and workers. However, the legend written in the early 20th
century about women being prevented from properly feeding their
children by slavery in the castle quarries and the claims that "all
the castle stones are covered in Vendian sweat and blood" can be
seen as ideological speculation about the German-enslaved "ancient
Latvians". the Dark Ages ”.
Evidence of the original
appearance of Cēsis Castle is very scarce. Most likely, on the sides
of the enclosed area of the moat, the castle builders formed a
high and thick protective wall, but in the courtyard surrounded by
the masonry they built residential and farm buildings. The chapel
consoles typical of the Romanesque period of the chapel built in the
north-eastern corner of the courtyard have allowed art historians to
date this part of the castle to the 13th century, ie the oldest
construction period of the castle. The other oldest buildings of
Cēsis Castle have been demolished during later reconstructions.
Prosperity (14th-16th centuries)
After the defeat of the
Order of the Sword Brothers in the Battle of the Sun, the Order's
lands and remaining brothers were included in the German Order. The
Livonian branch of the German Order also took over Cēsis Castle,
making it one of the strongest strongholds in the Baltics in the
following centuries. Cēsis Castle functioned as one of the military
and administrative centers of the Livonian branch of the German
Order. Until the beginning of the 15th century, the castle was under
the control of a member of the Livonian branch, the commander. The
functions of the administrative center expanded from the 14th
century, when regular meetings of chapters began to take place in
the castle. After 1413, when the area directly subordinated to the
Livonian master was established, Cēsis Castle became one of the
master's residences, but after the destruction of Riga Castle in
1484 - the only master's residence and Livonian political center,
where the master most often stayed with the court, a capital and
Livonian city meetings, envoys were received and important foreign
policy issues were addressed.
In Cēsis Castle, the German
Order underwent extensive reconstructions. Instead of the old castle
buildings, a monumental square castle or castle was gradually built,
consisting of four multi-storey buildings built around the inner
courtyard. This type of building of the Order's castles, introduced
from Prussia, was largely based on the need to create easily
protected "fortified monasteries", in which the premises for the
Order's brothers would be arranged as compactly as possible. In
addition to the protection of the castles and the placement of
various farm buildings, large forecourts were also installed. As a
result of grandiose reconstructions, Cēsis Castle had become one of
the largest and most powerful castles of the German Order.
The significance and majesty of Cēsis Castle reached unprecedented
proportions between 1494 and 1535, when Master Walter von
Plettenberg, one of the most prominent Livonian politicians and
warlords, was at the forefront of the Order. Walter von Plettenberg
(like the two previous masters) chose Cēsis Castle as his main
residence. Here he received foreign envoys, gathered his advisers,
and met with the top leadership of the Order at chapters to discuss
internal matters of the Order and to explain relations with the
bishops and cities of Livonia.
Plettenberg's contemporary Bartolomejs Grēfentāls
stated in his chronicle that the master "Cēsis Castle, where his
residence and court camp were located, was decorated with three new
towers, walls and bastions". It is not known exactly which three of
the five castle towers were built during the reign of Plettenberg,
but there is no doubt that at the beginning of the 16th century
Cēsis Castle underwent a grand reconstruction. In the course of
them, the castle acquired not only the above-mentioned defense
towers, but also interiors designed in accordance with its excellent
status, such as the luxurious vaulted master bedroom in the western
tower and the chapter hall in the southern building.
Tragedy
(1577)
During the Livonian War in the summer of 1577, Russian
Tsar John the Terrible went on a new campaign from Pskov to Livonia,
which was attended by more than 29 thousand soldiers with 19
cannons, 1440 Cossacks and 4227 Tatars in the cavalry. On August 28,
under the leadership of the tsar, Russian and Tatar troops occupied
Ērgļi Castle and went to Cēsis Castle, where King Magnus of Livonia
was located. Due to suspicions of Magnus' betrayal, the tsar ordered
his arrest and expulsion of his troops.
According to the
chronicler Laurentijs Millers, the castle housed a few hundred
inhabitants of Cēsis and the surrounding area - mostly women and
children. In turn, the Russian and Tatar armies armed with heavy
cannons were in the thousands. Chronicler Salomon Henning reports
that there was a destiny and hopelessness among the defenders of the
castle - when the person standing at the window was killed by a
Russian projectile, the next one took the place of the fallen,
hoping to go to death sooner. The castle itself had suffered
significantly in the five-day long fire - the cracking of the thick
walls was becoming larger and larger. The fate of Cēsis Castle was
decided, but the people who sought refuge in its walls were ready
for everything, so that they would not have to fall into the
captivity of the cruel invaders. They decided to take the final step
- to blow up the gunpowder together. The most moving description of
collective suicide was given by Solomon Henning: “It was sadder than
sad as good people kneeled in the room under which gunpowder was
placed. Husbands and wives joined hands, children gathered around
their parents, babies were still at the mother's breast. The
gunpowder was set on fire and everyone blew up, except for those who
were hiding elsewhere in the castle. ” In December 1577, about 200
cavalry and the same infantry, led by Jānis Bīriņš, suddenly evicted
a Russian garrison from Cēsis Castle in a night attack.
The
remains of several people who died in the tragedy were uncovered in
1974 during an archeological excavation of the basements of the
western building of Cēsis Castle, which was destroyed. In 2020, in
the southern tower of Cēsis Castle (Long Hermann), looking at the
spiral staircase that was inaccessible for several centuries, a
engraved coat of arms with the initials WKVA and the inscription "If
God for us will be against us" were found on a stone (Latin: Si Deus
pro nobis quis contra nos).
Decay (17th-18th centuries)
Jürgen von Farsensbach, the Cēsis voivodeship, gradually tried to
put the war-damaged castle in order, but it did not regain its
pre-war form. During the Polish-Swedish war, Cēsis came under
Swedish rule. For about half a century, the castle belonged to the
Swedish Chancellor, Count Axel Uxenschern, to whose family it
belonged until the reduction of the manors in 1680. Shortly after
the transfer to the ownership of the crown, the soldiers of the
cavalry unit commanded by Officer Grabov were housed in Cēsis
Castle. They had destroyed the castle so much that it looked like it
had been looted - the castle doors and floor had been set on fire by
the soldiers, but the lead frames of the window had been melted into
bullets. After these ruins, the castle was no longer repaired and
inhabited. Cēsis Castle had also completely lost its military
significance, and at the end of the 17th century it was not included
in any of the lists of Vidzeme fortresses to be used.
In the
first years of the Great Northern War, the demolition of Cēsis
Castle was continued by the Russian troops invading Vidzeme. Further
destruction of the ancient fortress was carried out by rain and
frost, which gradually but inevitably destroyed the stone walls left
without roofs. Impregnated with rainwater, the wooden ceiling and
masonry vaults collapsed, the plaster separated from the wet walls,
while the masonry mortar containing stones crumbled under the
influence of frost. The castle gradually "sank" into the rubble.
Reconstruction (19th century)
The Romantic movement, born at
the end of the 18th century, gradually aroused the interest of the
general public in the heritage of the past and the monuments of
antiquity. Following the fashion of free-plan parks, around 1830
Kārlis Gustavs von Zīvers, the owner of Cēsis manor, transformed the
“wet place near the ruins of the master’s castle” into a large
landscape park, including the ancient Vend castle mound and the
medieval castle wall.
The castle park served as a place for walks and
recreation not only for the Zīvers family and its guests, but also
for the patients of the water treatment institution established by
Kārlis Gustavs Zīvers in 1841. The park's footpaths also winded
through the former courtyard of the medieval castle, and the castle
ruins became a popular attraction for park visitors. The
surroundings of the castle ruins were maintained, landscaped and
even repaired parts of some parts of the castle.
At the
beginning of the 20th century, the Riga Society of History and
Antiquity Researchers was involved in organizing the preservation of
Cēsis Castle. Its members did not want to allow rain and frost to
collapse. s. The luxurious ceiling vault of the master hall.
Architect Hermanis Zeiberlihs prepared a project to build the roof
of the tower and activists started collecting donations. In May
1914, the restoration and covering of the top of the tower could
begin. The implementation of the works was entrusted to the local
construction contractor Pēteris Meņģelis, who undertook to perform
most of the construction works free of charge, because the
association had not been able to raise all the necessary funds. The
roof of the tower was completed in September of the same year, when
Europe had already been torn apart by the First World War.
Heritage (20th-21st centuries)
In the agrarian reform of 1920,
most of the Cēsis manor, including the ruins of a medieval castle,
was alienated to the family of Count Zīvers in favor of the newly
established Latvian state. In 1925, the Board of Monuments included
Cēsis Castle in the list of cultural monuments protected by the
state. Under the care of the Board of Monuments and the Board of the
City of Cēsis, the castle was cleaned and improved, as well as the
strengthening of several parts of its walls was carried out. In the
1930s, the national tourism movement “Travel your homeland!”
Flourished in Latvia, the main goal of which was the propaganda of
Latvian Latvia. Cēsis Castle, which was visited by several thousand
travelers every year, played an important role in this ideological
campaign - to recall the past "700 years of slavery".
After
the Second World War and the occupation of Latvia, the unoccupied
Cēsis Castle was not built by anyone, therefore many visitors "had
to face signs of non-culture at every step". The situation improved
when the communal apartments built in the New Castle were abolished
in 1949 and it became the home of the Cēsis Local History Museum.
The castle ruins were re-fenced, but the museum staff, together with
the youth of the local school, organized clean-ups of the ruins and
their surroundings.
The new owner of the castle - the Cēsis
Museum - at that time looked at the castle ruins as a building that
could be restored in its original appearance, without thinking about
preserving its authenticity and historical patina. Since the second
half of the 20th century, the methods and principles of conservation
of ancient castle ruins have changed significantly. Nowadays, the
preservation of the walls in Cēsis Castle is carried out very
carefully, respecting the testimonies and strata of different times.
The utopian plans to reconstruct the castle, cherished over the
course of the 20th century, have today been replaced by a minimalist
approach that preserves the romantic character and authenticity of
the castle ruins. Restorers no longer use "non-breathable" cement
and prefabricated bricks to restore walls. Instead, materials that
age naturally under the influence of the environment are used - lime
mortar, dolomite and bricks made according to traditional methods.
The work is performed by professional restorers and qualified
craftsmen with experience in stone wall conservation.
Archaeological excavations in Cēsis Castle were carried out in 1927
(Artūrs Štāls), in 1960 (Roberts Malvess) and in 1974–2008. year
(Zigrīda Apala). In total, the territory of the castle complex of
almost 10,000 m² has been archaeologically studied. As a result of
large-scale excavations, Cēsis Castle has become the most
archaeologically researched and richest find medieval castle in
Latvia. The vast majority of the approximately 13,000 antiquities
found in the excavations of the castle are stored in the Latvian
National Museum of History, but since 2004 the castle finds have
been transferred to the collection of the Cēsis Museum. The
priorities for the future work of archaeologists and museum staff
are no longer related to the continuation of large-scale excavations
in Cēsis Castle, but to the full-fledged preservation of the
obtained archeological material, scientific research and preparation
of publications available to a wide range of interested parties.
Description
During the first three centuries of its
existence, Cēsis Castle was repeatedly rebuilt and expanded by its
owners. It culminated in planning and scope in the first half of the
16th century. At that time, the castle complex consisted of a grand
main castle and three large forecourts, occupying a total area of
four hectares.
The main castle
The core of Cēsis Castle was formed by the
residence of the brothers of the Order - the main castle or castle.
It is located on a hill, which is located at the junction of two
deep natural ravines. Thus, on the north and west sides, the castle
was protected by natural steep slopes, but on the south and east
sides a protective ditch was dug. The main castle covered an area of
about 60 x 60 meters, thus becoming one of the largest castles of
the German Order in medieval Livonia and Prussia. In Cēsis, as in
other castles of the German Order, the main basement and attic of
the castle were used as warehouses for food and household goods. On
the ground floor there were various utility rooms, such as a
kitchen, a bakery and a brewery. On the second floor were the living
rooms of the brothers of the Order - a chapel, a chapter or a
meeting hall, a remter (dining room) and a dormitorium (bedroom), as
well as rooms for the highest officials of the Order.
At
present, only the walls of two buildings adjoin the inner courtyard
of Cēsis Castle, but during the flowering of its existence, the main
castle buildings included it from all four sides. The buildings
built on the northern and western sides of the courtyard perished
during the sieges of 1577 and 1578.
Forecourt
In a
semicircle around the main castle, surrounded by high defensive
walls, there were spacious farmyards - the forecourt. They are
installed as an outer fortification strip for additional protection
of the main castle. In peacetime, the forecourt was used for various
economic purposes. The time of the construction of the forecourts of
Cēsis Castle is unknown, but the amounts fixed in the earlier plans
are most likely related to the reconstructions carried out at the
turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, with the introduction of
firearms in warfare.
On the south side of the main castle,
surrounded by a high defensive wall, was the first forecourt.
Blacksmiths' workshops, workshops for shoemakers, saddlers and other
craftsmen, wood sheds, warehouses and horse stables, as well as many
other farms and residential buildings were located in this area. The
forecourt buildings were destroyed during the Russian invasion in
1577.
The oldest written evidence of a relatively small
second foreground has survived from 1590. During this time, the
entrance to the courtyard of the forecourt was guarded by a gate
tower, which in the plans of the castle drawn in the 17th century
was called the "Castle Gate". In front of the tower was a standing
wooden fence and a water-filled protective ditch, which was crossed
by a "drawbridge on iron bars and two iron chains". The entrance to
the gate tower was guarded by an iron lattice in "thick and strong
chains", but behind it - massive wooden gate leaves, driven by
wide-headed iron nails. After the Polish-Swedish war, the courtyard
of the second forecourt began to become the center of Cēsis manor.
Here, next to the ancient defensive wall, the manor manager's and
servants' residential buildings were built, as well as a stable,
carriage, barn and other farm buildings.
Most of the third
forecourt was occupied by a deep ravine, but the buildings were
built in a small area between the northern slope of the ravine and
the defensive wall. At the end of the 16th century, there was an
malt dryer and a barn for drying grain, as well as a large stone
stable for 60 horses. The significant number of horses housed in the
stable indicates that the building was probably built during the
reign of the German Order.