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Iron fording and building ironwork in the territory of Latvia
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and door fittings of the parsonage (Tiesenhausen 1890, 9, 98, 138). The Oxenstierna family in
the 17th century recorded several purchases, among them iron as starting material and iron-
work fittings (Dunsdorfs 1935, 13, 102, 175, 389, 394, 414). Livonian estates purchased hinges,
iron plates for chimneys, laths and roofing nails, padlocks and keys as well as orders were made
to the local smith and locksmith to whom the payment was recorded, but the objects made were
not specified (Dunsdorfs 1935, 398, 404, 405, 409, 412, 415). More information on the use of
various iron building details can be gathered from the room descriptions in the castles of Polish
Livonia when at the end of the 16th century inventories were made. Similar inventories are from
the second half of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th centuries of the castles and manor
houses in the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia as well as Swedish Livonia. The recorded
information on iron building details in the few castle inventories of the 16th–18th centuries is
discussed in greater detail further in this work in the chapter “Recordings on building ironwork
in Livonian castles from the end of the 16th up to the beginning of the 18th centuries”.
Literature. In Latvian information on ironwork details in Livonian buildings is scanty.
One of the sources is some publications referring to local iron extraction or smiths work. His-
torians have presented a survey on the investigation of two manor houses in the 1580s in Livo-
nia, including Turaida estate (Bērziņš 1935). Metal technologist Aleksis Anteins researched
historical ferrous metals and in his publications described the composition of old iron objects
and manufacturing processes (Anteins 1976). Mārīte Jakovļeva’s research on iron manufactures
in the 17th century Duchy of Courland and Semigallia is based on written historical records
(Jakovļeva 1992). The above publications contain some facts used for further investigation of
ironwork details at Turaida Castle.
Art historian Ināra Novadniece described metal art in Latvia in the buildings of the
17th–19th centuries (Novadniece 1975). Pictures of some door and window fittings of the
18th–19th centuries in small towns in Courland are given in the publications by architect
Gunārs Jansons (Jansons 1971, 142; Jansons 1982, 82, 96, 142, 152) and art historian Imants
Lancmanis (Lancmanis 1983, 36, 132, 174–183, 186, 187). They both describe the splendid
work of craftsmen that has survived up to our time. It reveals some features of the Baroque and
later art styles and sometimes these can also be detected in the Latvian archaeological materials,
though mostly the finds are simple ironwork details and their fragments.
Since up to now no summary of the building ironwork of the medieval and post-medieval
period has been produced in Latvian, the terminology used by various authors differs. Already
before the Second World War architect Augusts Malvess published a glossary of construction
terms (Malvess 1931), but the proposed names for building ironwork have been accepted only
partly. In the period 1970–1990, there was published the Dictionary of the Latvian Literary Lan-
guage in eight volumes (LLVV 1972–1996). It contains explanations of several most common
building details with examples. Names of some medieval iron building details are included in
the Dictionary of Archaeological Terminology by Jānis Graudonis (Graudonis 1994, 124, 125,
148, 149, 171, 172, Figs. 76, 86, 98), though archaeologists avoid them in their publications.