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by opening or closing the holes made in the walls. The walls of the oven could be piled anew each time
using dried raw bricks, or a regular oven was built of baked bricks and stones. After heating, the oven
was let to grow cold for several days or even weeks. In the 18th century, the proportion of waste pieces
was 3 to 15 per cent (Zeida 1962, 142, 145).
The capacity of brick-kilns was diverse. In the brick-kiln of Jelgava/Mitau Castle, in 1566, about
100 000 bricks were baked in one season, but in the Oxenstierna’s brick-kiln, in 1643, only 7000 bricks
and 5300 roof tiles were produced. In 1729, in the oven built near the previous Cobron Fortification,
44 000 bricks were baked at the first time, but in the brick-kiln of Jelgava/Mitau, in the 18th century, in
each time of burning, simultaneously 13 500 common roof tiles were made as well as 550 ridge tiles and
about 650 flat roof tiles with rounded ends – the so-called “tongues” (Zeida 1962, 144, 146). This shows
that brick-kilns of estates could be heated only once a year and only that much bricks could be burnt as
were necessary for the construction of a new building, or for some repair works, whereas the brick-kilns
that were operating for trade produced many thousands of bricks a year. For a comparison – the brick-
kiln of Lüneburg, already in the first half of the 14th century, produced about 160 000 bricks per year, its
capacity was constantly growing, and in the first half of the 15th century the number of produced bricks
already reached 520 000 brick per year (Rümelin 1998, 42).
Where were the bricks of Turaida Castle made?
Only suggestions can be made concerning Turaida as a centre of brick production in the 13th –
14th centuries, since no written sources or archaeological evidences are available. When medieval
castles were constructed, the builders strived to prepare the building materials possibly close nearby,
because transportation of bricks from a distant brick-kiln would imply huge extra costs and loss of
time. Supposedly, during the time when Turaida Castle (Fig. 4) was constructed, the brick-kiln was
built not far from the construction site, since all the necessary raw materials also could be found in the
environment – deposits of good clay, water, as well as woods that could be felled. In the Polish audit
inventories of Turaida Castle made in 1582 the fish ponds of the castle were registered (Turaida 1999,
156). It is unknown when they were dug since fish were a significant foodstuff in the Middle Ages as
well as in the Early Modern Times. The written memoirs of the eldest local inhabitants being kept in
the archives of Turaida Museum Reserve include stories of the origin of the numerous ponds of the
estate – they were created when in “olden times” clay was dug for brick making, for construction of the
castle. Also literature sources of the first part of the 20th century contain statements that the fish ponds
of Turaida Estate were established in the pits where clay had been dug for the needs of the brick-kiln of
the medieval castle (Eiduks 1933–1934, 19652).
Interestingly, in 1555, bricks and roof tiles for Riga St. John’s Church were purchased from Johann
Treiden (Kämmerei-Register 1902, 154) but it is known that from 1576 to 1579 brick maker Johann
Treiden resided in Jelgava (Zemgale region; Zeida 1962, 120). Judging by the name it can be supposed
that he had moved to Riga and later to Zemgale from Turaida. However, investigations by the historian
Vija Stikāne show that several persons named Treiden, in the 15th –16th centuries, were petty vassals of the
Order, they lived in Courland and Semigallia, and also in North Estonia. Therefore, the abovementioned
Ieva Ose. Building ceramics of Turaida Castle in the 13th–17th centuries