Sigulda New Castle: A Neo-Gothic Manor House in Latvia
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Latvia
- Primary era
- Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Russian
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Castle
On this page12 sections
History
Sigulda New Castle is a Neo-Gothic manor house in Sigulda, Latvia, built between 1878 and 1881 as the residence of the Kropotkin family. Neo-Gothic was a nineteenth-century revival style based on medieval Gothic forms and castle-like detailing. The building became a manor residence, a writers’ retreat, a wartime headquarters, a Soviet recreation house, and eventually a municipal administrative building.
The Manor at Sigulda
The center of Sigulda Manor began to develop in the former forecourt of Sigulda Medieval Castle during the seventeenth century, when the area formed part of Swedish Livonia, the Swedish-administered territory in the eastern Baltic. After Vidzeme became part of the Russian Empire, the manor passed from the von der Borgh family to the Kropotkin family through the marriage of Olga Borch, daughter of Count Alexander von der Borch, to Dmitry Kropotkin.
Jānis Mengelis of Cēsis built the New Castle for the Kropotkins between 1878 and 1881. Nikolai Kropotkin inherited Sigulda Manor from his father Dmitry in 1898 and was identified as the founder of Sigulda’s resort development.
War Damage and the Writers’ Castle
The castle suffered severe damage during the First World War in 1917. Following Latvia’s postwar agrarian reform, which reorganized landed estates and ended the previous manor-owning system, the Latvian Union of Writers and Journalists began using the building in 1922. Because the castle could not be used in its damaged condition, the union financed extensive repairs.
During the 1920s and 1930s, the restored property operated as a boarding and creative retreat for writers, literary figures, other guests, and visitors from abroad. This use gave the building its name, the Writers’ Castle. In 1934, ownership passed to the Latvian Press Society, which initiated a major reconstruction under the architect Alfrēds Birkhāns in 1936 and 1937.
Reconstruction and Later Uses
The 1936–1937 reconstruction completely replanned the building. Its viewing tower was raised, the surrounding terrace was enlarged, and a new balcony was added to the second floor. Niklāvs Strunke, Pēteris Ozoliņš, Kārlis Sūniņš, Vilhelms Vasariņš, and other artists helped create new interiors in a developed Latvian national style. The modernized retreat house was especially ornate, and publicity surrounding the work helped make it popular. Images of the renovated building appeared in French art magazines.
During the Second World War, the castle served as the headquarters of the German army’s Nord command. After the war, the Soviet Council of Ministers converted it into a recreation house for senior officials. In 1953, the Latvian SSR Ministry of Health established the Sigulda sanatorium in buildings at the manor center. A sanatorium was a residential medical institution for treatment, recuperation, and rehabilitation rather than ordinary hospital care. The sanatorium continued operating until the restoration of Latvian independence.
The castle housed the Sigulda City Council from 1993 to 2002 and the Sigulda District Council from 2003. It is identified as an architectural monument and is used by the municipal administration.
Remains
Sigulda New Castle has a relatively simple plan and overall form characteristic of a Neo-Gothic manor house. Its construction reused materials from earlier masonry remains associated with the former forecourt. Roughly split fieldstone, with its varied colors, contributes much of the building’s architectural and artistic effect. The surviving manor center includes the New Castle, the Summer Castle, the White Castle, the supervisor’s house, servants’ houses, a barn, a laundry, and vegetable and fruit cellars. A wall of roughly split fieldstone encloses the center, with an ornate gate structure providing its principal entrance feature.
The New Castle
The castle’s exterior includes a viewing tower, the enlarged terrace created during the 1936–1937 reconstruction, and the second-floor balcony added at the same time. Its windows look across the Gauja Valley toward the ruins of Sigulda Castle, while the more distant ruins of Krimulda and Turaida are also visible. A landscaped yard lies on the opposite side of the building.
The reconstructed interiors are especially ornate and include an artistically ambitious hall and other rooms created in the national style of the 1930s. Their design was modern for the period and formed an important part of the building’s identity as a retreat house.
The Manor Center
The Summer Castle
The Summer Castle, also called the Yellow House, stands beside the New Castle. It is an elongated wooden building in the Classical style, dating from around the end of the eighteenth century into the first half of the nineteenth century. Its high hipped roof is a defining feature. Mārcis Sārums, a master builder from Cēsis, constructed the building.
After the New Castle was completed in 1881, the Kropotkin family used the Summer Castle as a family Orthodox church. Services were conducted by the Orthodox priest of the Ledurga parish. After the Writers’ and Journalists’ Union acquired the manor, the building was remodeled for use as a boarding house.
Guest and Service Buildings
The former wooden manor lodging house was converted into a 12-room hotel for the Writers’ and Journalists’ Union’s guests. The barns became a hostel with separate sleeping areas for women and men. The former kitchen garden was adapted as a sports field, while the apple orchard became tennis courts.
Shortly before the Second World War, work began in the castle garden on a greenhouse and a wine house. These facilities were intended to supply guests with grapes and support the production of Sigulda wine.
Memorial and Adapted Buildings
Atis Kronvalds Monument
A monument to Atis Kronvalds stands in front of the New Castle. Teodors Zaļkalns made the monument, which was unveiled in 1938. Kronvalds was one of the initiators of the second phase of the Young Latvian movement and contributed substantially to the development of the Latvian literary language. At a teachers’ conference in Turaida in 1869, he delivered a paper on language rights in Latvian for the first time in history, and the monument commemorates this cultural and linguistic work.
Former Brewery
The former manor brewery has been adapted as a sand-art gallery. It contains sand paintings and three-dimensional works made with a technique developed by Elmārs Gaigalnieks, together with a collection of sand samples from five continents.
