Baltic Missionary Memories: Sigulda, a place of fairy tales....

The weather wasn't actually "fairy tale" quality when we decided to go to Sigulda once again... but we knew that winter was on it's way, so on a Tuesday, we invited the Adams to go with us on a crisp, grey, fall morning to the fairy tale town of Sigulda, Latvia.

One of our YSA's, Elza was from Sigulda and when she heard we were going to her "hometown" she told us all the sights we needed to see. She was a great help....she even gave directions to everything.

This was one of the first buildings we saw as we entered Sigulda and it reminded Sister Davis of Switzerland for some reason...though she has never been to Switzerland and has no idea if the buildings look like this or not.

Sigulda doesn't actually have a fairy tale history. It was taken over by the Livonian Order in 1207, who lost it to the Poles in 1562. The town passed between the Poles and Swedes for 150 years until Russia took it over in the Great Northern War 1700-1721. This town has been controlled by other people for most of it's history. Now, it is a major tourist attraction in Latvia.

Located right in the center of town, this white stone church was first mentioned in historical documents in 1483 as St. Bartholomew's and, with the exception of its tower and pulpit that were added in the 1930s, hasn’t really changed much since then. It now has a Lutheran congregation.

Sisters Davis and Adams in the park near the church. You can see we are bundled up! Brrrr.

The decor inside the church is simple and dignified.....

You can visit the church every day of the week and even climb up to the top of the tower. There is a donation box for visitors as they are trying to add a wing of classrooms so we all donated to such a good cause. Upstairs is a nice pipe organ and a small, rather unique picture gallery. The pictures are all made with buttons.....

St. George and the Dragon

Sister Davis was fascinated by the creative way this artist used buttons.

It is time to start saving buttons, Sister Davis's creative juices are flowing and she wants to make one of these when she gets home!

The view from the steeple.....

We saw this typical Latvian "grandma" (she looks like she just walked out of a fairy tale, doesn't she?) helping her husband chop wood for the church and asked if we could take her picture. She was very gracious and stopped her work to pose for us.

Elza told us there was a "new castle" in Sigulda and an old one; she was right....
This is the entrance to both the new and old castle.

Sister Adams and Davis showing off the "new castle"... a place fairy tales are made of.

The new castle was actually built in 1867...but was just remodeled.

And right behind the new castle is the "old medieval one".

The next thing Elza said we needed to try was the ariel tramway over the Gauja River.

The "cable car" takes you from the city of Sigulda on one side of the river to the town of Krimulda on the other side. It is about a 7 minute ride.

With some fantastic views....

Turaida Castle can be seen in the distance...

Guaja National Park....

And finally we disembark on the Krimulda side of the river. Below is the 19th century manor house once owned by Count von Lieven (it definitely looks like a fairy tale house), that is currently being used as a rehabilitation center for children.

The gardens had "fairy-tale" sized dahlias in bloom....

Most of the town is really what is left of Count von Lieven's estate. He must have had a huge staff because many buildings were the residences of his employees.

The stables and residence of the grooms....

The old barn has unusual stone work on the walls....

It was just another typical estate belonging to a count....

So we got back into the cable car to get back to our car on the Sigulda side of the valley. And on the ride back home we spy something big and black on one of the tallest pine trees and had to smile. It was one of the "Three Bears". Someone strapped a stuffed bear to the tree to amuse those on the cable car ride. We wondered how long he had been "hanging out" there.

We were told they also offer bungee jumps from the cable car itself. No thanks! Back in our car we headed down the hill and up the other side to visit the Turaida Museum...which includes another castle.

It was chilly but the fall colors were still pretty. We knew that winter would soon be here as the leaves were falling from the trees with every little puff of wind.

Who would ever think we would be saying to ourselves..."Oh no! Not another castle!"

But, here we were at Turaida Castle with Elder & Sister Adams, thinking just that. We had heard the view from the tower is incredible so it was worth a visit....

This is a giant medieval tower...."Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your hair!"

One of the docents in period costume.

Part of the castle has been rebuilt and houses a museum of history.

The castle was built in 1214 but after a fire in 1776 it was left to ruins.....

We climbed the 7 flights of stairs to the top of the tower to get this view.
Sorry we didn't see Rapunzel that day but it was the perfect tower for her.

We took a quick tour of the museum and since Elder Davis had the camera, we have mostly pictures of weapons...

Sister Davis is "peeking" around a huge chair. Even the book on the table is big. Hmmmm...
Did a giant once live here? Maybe this was a real fairy tale castle.