Ventspils Castle

Chris, Pumpkin and I visited Ventspils Castle in November. It was great and we will be back to visit again in the spring
Unlike a lot of Canadian historic sites that shut down in the winter, Latvian historic sites remain open. They charge admission, a few euros, but I think their philosophy is, "You're here, we're here, we're awesome even if it is not as good as it would normally be in the summer, so come on in." And they are right. We need an attitude adjustment in Canada. We're always so sorry that it's not perfect that we shut down. Instead we should be open not only for winter special events, but just open. Rant over.

The courtyard as you enter.

The castle. The tower is part of the original build.

Ventspils Castle was built by the Livonian Order in the mid to late thirteenth century. There was no activity in the grounds at the time of our visit, but the gardens were still lovely to walk through.

Pumpkin taking a walk through the grounds.

 Ventspils Castle does allow your dog to come into the castle/museum itself which was a first for me. The greeters to the museum were dressed in Latvian costume, spoke English, let us know that Pumpkin was okay to wander around in the building and that the Latvian 100th Anniversary display was an extra fee and also written entirely in Latvian. We decided not to see the Latvian 100th display. The inner courtyard is still intact and they have roofed the courtyard which allows them to heat the building.

The interior courtyard of the castle.

The interior courtyard of the castle. You can clearly see the later additions to the building.

There are several rooms with standard exhibits. Someone had some serious money to put into these exhibits. The cases are high quality and climate controlled. The labels are all in Latvian but they have some bronze age relics as well as medieval accoutrements on display. They do have plastic binder sheets with English descriptions available to support your understanding of some of the exhibits but they need to be updated as they don't match the cases very well and there is only one copy. They are also showing signs of wear. Some of the cases, particularly the ones that allowed for interactivity, have been damaged. (Isn't that always the way? If you are building it for the public to touch it needs to be made of titanium!)

One of the galleries with their very nice cases!

 The chapel and other great rooms were amazing. In every room there is an English label or explanation which was so helpful. You also sometimes forget that in the past for people to move from section to section of the castle you would have had to go outside in the ice and snow. And it gets cold here.

The great room fire place.

The chapel. The end of the Great Room leads to the chapel.

One of the seals marking the chapel wall which was uncovered during the archaeological excavations. 

My very favourite room in the entire castle was an awesome exhibit of how people modify their buildings over time. The room had been pulled apart in layers, so you went backwards in time until you reached the original medieval walls, but leaving many of the changes intact. A projector played on each wall in Latvian and English with arrows to all of the relevant additions and modifications to the construction. Additions of a 19th century stove beside a closed entrance from the 14th century were side by side. Don't like the 13th century medieval arch? Fill it in and change the window shape. Want to change the purpose of the room? Add a wall here and take a wall down there.  Awesome! The text was easy to understand and the arrows totally worked. The only thing I would change would be to add the history of the building as a primer before you entered the room so you would understand that the building had been everything from a fortification to a church to a prison.

Part of the room showing all the different stages of the castle in terms of use. The excavation found everything from medieval designs to the 20th century markings.

Since there are several floors it was wonderful to go through and explore. In some places some of their videos need adjustment so you can read the English but this was a minor distraction.

The warmest room in the castle.

Ventspils Castle was wonderful and well worth the visit!!!!