Dobele Castle Ruins

 

Ruins of a castle in Cēsis, Latvia.

From wikipedia:
"Ruins are the remains of human-made architecture: structures that were once complete,  and as time went by have fallen into a state of partial or complete disrepair, due to lack of maintenance or deliberate acts of destruction. Many structures become progressively derelict over time due to long-term weathering and scavenging."

 

We see ruins everywhere in Latvia, out in the country and inside cities; this place is loaded with ruins of castles, houses, and barns.  Many old stone houses have just been left to fall apart on their own and each time we drive past old stone walls, deteriorating but still upright, we wonder what their story is.  Who lived there?  What was life like back when it was a first built?  We will never know but for some reason, every time we drive past these stone "ruins" we can't help but notice them.

 

 

We have seen so many old Livonian Castle ruins in the Baltic that we are becoming a bit indifferent to them.  But on our way to the Tervete Nature Park, we discovered one quite by accident in the town of Dobele (Doa-bel-ay), south of Riga and it was pretty impressive sitting on a knoll above the town.

 

It had  a river on one side and a moat on the other...the moat is filled with green, mossy water that looks almost like grass. 
 

We parked our car, and walked to the old stone-arched entrance.

 

We didn't have to pay anything to see this place. There were no docents or guards...just a few guys mowing and raking the huge lawn and they soon left for lunch.  The photo below,  gives you an idea how big the Dobele Castle once was.

 

A tourism sign gave us some information about the castle. Once, this was an ancient city named Zemgali, and on this site a wooden castle was built and survived 100 years until 1289 when the Germans invaded in such insurmountable numbers the townspeople decided to burn the castle down and the inhabitants were banished to Lithuania.

 

The Livonian Order came in 1335 and started building a brick castle on the same site where the old wooden castle once stood.  In 1562, the 1st Duke of Kurland, Gothard Kettler, took possession of the castle.  He must have had a little extra cash lying around because he started to fix it up a bit. Later owners, rebuilt the castle in the Renaissance style of architecture with ornate stucco.

 

In the early 1700's a plague hit the area and most of the inhabitants died. The castle was abandoned and left to its fate....

 

 

 

 

...and gradually fell in ruins

The town of Dobele has done some archaeological work and in 2002 decided to make some improvements to keep the ruins from deteriorating even more. 

One  tower has been stabilized and you can climb up some narrow stairs to a small observation deck for a view of the town. 

The doorway was tiny...

The stairs were tiny....

 

 

 

The shoes were NOT tiny!   Elder Davis's size 12 shoes.

 

 

 

But with all the claustrophobia we had to deal with....

 

the view was good.

 

 And autumn was starting to appear.

 

It boggles the mind how many of these "ruins" are scattered over Latvia and people are just now realizing their historical significance by making them more appealing to visitors.

 

 

 

Just think of the labor it took to build these walls...and they are slowly disintegrating.

 

 

 

Elder Davis and Elder Millet and as the saying goes....

"A mans house is his castle."

 

And while men are relaxing in their "castle",
women are out looking for their  "knight in shining armor", but she has to be prepared for the consequences.....
 

 

 

"She who waits for her knight must remember-
she will have to clean up after his horse!"