Bauska is a city in Zemgale, the center of Bauska region, 67 km
from Riga. In Bauska, Mūsa and Mēmele merge to form Lielupe. The
international Via Baltica highway passes through the city. The city
of the nationalities living in the city has been called differently;
Germans in Bauske or Bausken, Jews in Boisk or Boysk, Poles in
Bowsk, Russians in Bausk. The city center is an urban planning
monument of national significance.
The average air
temperature is −5 ° C in January and 17–17.5 ° C in July.
Precipitation is around 500-650 mm per year. The duration of the
vegetation period is 185-190 days. The total area of the city is
609.4 ha. The building occupies 509.2 ha. The total length of the
city streets is 37 km.
Until the 13th century, the Bauska area was located in
the land of Upmale, later as part of the Livonian Confederation.
15th century In the middle of the 19th century, the Livonian Order
built Bauska Castle at the confluence of the Mēmele and Mūsa
confluences, and Vairogmiests was established next to the fortress.
Since 1561, Bauska Castle has been one of the residences of
Gotthard Kettler, the ruler of the Duchy of Kurzeme and Zemgale.
After the end of the Livonian War in 1584, Duke Gotthard Kettler
ordered the craftsmen's settlement to be moved further away from the
castle on the site of the present Bauska Old Town. In 1609, Duke
Friedrich Kettler presented the city of Bauska with a seal with the
image of a lion. During the Great Northern War in 1706, Russian
troops retreated and blew up Bauska Castle, which was not rebuilt.
After the end of the war, about half of the population of Bauska
died during the plague epidemic.
During the Second World War
in the summer of 1944, Bauska was in the riparian zone along the
Mēmele-Mūsa-Lielupe rivers for about a month and a half, and about a
third of the buildings in Bauska were destroyed in battles.
Bauska Holy Spirit Evangelical Lutheran Church is a Lutheran
church located at 13a Plūdona Street in Bauska. Bauska Lutheran
Church is from the end of the 16th century / 17. architectural
monument of national significance of the first half of the century.
The interior of the church is also under state protection - an
altar, pulpit, bench, organ, as well as 8 ancient tombstones.
The church is the oldest building in Bauska Old Town, built from
1591 to 1594. As the city of Bauska was formed at its location, not
only cult objects and possibly an altar, but also the burials of
local nobles were moved to the new Church of the Holy Spirit from
the old Church of St. Gertrude of the Shield. Initially, the
building was without a tower, which was built at the western end of
the building in 1614, but in 1623 a spire of a two-stage tower with
a dome and a spire, which has not survived to this day, was built.
At one of the ends of the benches is the oldest wood carving of
the coat of arms of Bauska - a golden lion on a red shield - (1640).
The pulpit (1762) and the organ prospectus (1766) were donated by
Senator Nikolai Friedrich Johann von Corfu of the Russian Empire.
The steps have survived from the 17th century. mid - 18th century at
the beginning. In 1799, lightning struck the top of the tower, and a
"temporary" flat roof was laid on the tower, which it has preserved
to this day. On May 1, 1815, lightning struck the tower again,
damaging parts of the masonry. Until 1826, in addition to the
pastor, the deacon also served in the church.
From 1921 to
1945, the next archbishop of the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran
Church, Gustav Turss, served as pastor.
After 2000, the roof
and tower were repaired and the organ was restored. When the tower
cock and ball were removed during the repair in October 2007, a
sealed capsule containing documents written in 1623, 1766 and 1813,
as well as sixteen different coins minted between 1575 and 1810, was
discovered in the ball. Documents and coins can be viewed at the
Bauska Local History and Art Museum.
On the south wall is an
epitaph of Joachim Henning (1626 - 1677), a Bauska merchant who died
in 1677, the city's elder and court bailiff, depicting Christ
mentioning a dragon. It was painted by the artist Dietrich von Ceic
from Hamburg, who lived in the city in 1682, becoming one of the
city's elders, in 1702 as a court bailiff and in 1704 as a mayor.
The epitaph of Bauska Mayor Klaus Johann Reimers, made in 1757, is
placed on the northern wall.
The existing altar was
originally made in 1699, it acquired its current appearance after
the reconstruction of Jelgava by the German-Baltic painter Jūlius
Dērings in 1860 - 1861 and the installation of the altarpiece
"Golgotha". Dering simplified and largely destroyed the old interior
design by removing all the sculptures from the altar and repainting
them in white. In 1873, the step, the altar barrier and the chestnut
console were painted brown. In 1886 the tomb was filled in the
basement of the church, but nine in the 16th and 17th centuries.
tombstones removed from the floor and placed along the walls.
The church organ is the largest in Zemgale, from 1890 to 1901 it
was built by the first Latvian professional organ master Mārtiņš
Krēsliņš.
20th century at the beginning of Bauska St. The
Spirit Church had the largest number of painted epitaphs in Latvia -
7. In 1904 they were removed and died over time. Some fragments of
them are stored in the Latvian History Museum and Rundāle Castle.
Bauska Castle Museum
Bauska Town Hall
Bauska Local History
and Art Museum
Bauska Freedom Monument
Bauska St. George
Orthodox Church
Bauska Sacred Sacrament Roman Catholic Church
Peter's stone