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At the beginning of the 20th century
| most of land in Latvia still was owned by about 1000 families (for example in Vidzeme region 162 families 77 % of all land). |
| As a fact it shows economic status of nobility for the period and explains why these manor-houses could take pride in the most noteworthy high quality architectural structures. Most of all castles, palaces and manor-houses were damaged and ruined during wars. Livonian War in the 16th century and Northern War in the 17th century affected building of castles and development of manors. Many manor-houses (e.g. Cirsti) were burned down during revolutionary unrests of peasants in 1905 (these fires was hypertrophied protest against German landlords and Russian government of that time). After renovations new disaster came – the 1st World War started and some palaces were completely ruined e.g. Eleja manor-house. Law about agrarian reform accepted by new-established Republic of Latvia after the 1st World War in 1920 liquidated manor as an economic structure and form of land property, in the same time it was turn-point when the nobility was destroyed as a social class and building of manor-houses felt in decline. Many manor-houses were rebuilt and reconstructed for education institutions, hospitals, flats and the like. After 2nd World War started Soviet era and main opinion of top institutions was to destroy all German culture heritages by ignorance and dumping them down. Many manor-houses were dumped till emergency conditions (e.g. Odziena) the same as household buildings and parks and only enthusiasm and interest of specialists helped to preserve and renovate number of architecture monuments and to avert further damages. |
| The English version of this website was developed during implementation of the project "Living castles and manors: development of cultural tourism in Lithuania and Latvia", supported by EU PHARE 2002 program "Cross Border Cooperation - Special Action in favour of the Baltic Sea Region" Small Project Fund Scheme. Translation: Baltic Media Ltd, 2005 |
 Rundale Palace - Museum |
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 Heritage. Tourism |
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 Lithuanian castles and manors |