From Riga: Cēsis Castle, Sigulda & Turaida – Latvia's Medieval Triangle

Head northeast from Riga through flat agricultural land before descending into the Gauja valley. The guide introduces the Livonian Order — the crusading military order of German knights who conquered Latvia and Estonia in the 13th century in a campaign known as the Northern Crusade. Their fortress-building programme created the Baltic's most impressive medieval landscapes, and the Gauja Valley preserves it better than anywhere.

Cēsis Castle was the second most important fortress of the Livonian Order after Riga — the residence of the Order's most senior Baltic officials, the Venden Masters, for nearly 300 years. Construction began in 1214 and continued through the 15th century. The guide covers the castle's extraordinary 1577 siege: facing capture by Ivan the Terrible's forces and unwilling to surrender, the German defenders blew up the powder magazine with themselves inside, choosing death over submission. The ruins remain one of Latvia's most atmospheric medieval sites.

The Livonian Order Castle at Sigulda was built between 1207 and 1226 on a promontory above the Gauja gorge — one of the earliest Livonian Order castles and the administrative centre for the surrounding region. The ruins are dramatically positioned on a sandstone ridge with views across the valley to the opposite cliff where a second castle (Krimulda) stands. The nearby bobsled track runs from the ridge down to the valley floor — the only natural bobsled run in the Baltic states.

Turaida Castle — whose name means 'God's Garden' in ancient Livonian — was built by the Archbishop of Riga in 1214 on the site of a Livonian tribal hill fort. The circular red-brick donjon (keep) is one of the most perfectly preserved medieval towers in Latvia, and the views from the top over the Gauja forest are extraordinary. The surrounding Museum Reserve preserves the legend of the Turaida Rose: Maija, a young woman adopted by the castle gardener, who chose death rather than submission when attacked by a Polish soldier in 1620. Her grave in the nearby Lutheran church is still decorated with fresh flowers by Latvian schoolchildren today.