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The Open-Air Exhibition
“Ponds and Fishing at
the Turaida Estate”
The bodies of water around Turaida include more than
40 ancient ponds, as well as remnants of dams. Ponds
in the centre of the Turaida Estate have been listed in
documents and shown on maps ever since the 16th
century. The first ponds were installed in so-called
“knighthood holes,” with water coming from local
streams. “Knighthood holes” appeared when clay was
dug to manufacture bricks for the castle. Remnants of
the oldest known dams in the area show that they were
installed at least 200 years ago.
Pond operations developed very rapidly at the Turaida
Estate during the early 20th century. Many new ponds
were dug, and a specialist from Denmark was brought
in to introduce the latest methods in fish breeding.
After the agrarian reforms of the 1920s, the ponds
became the property of the agronomist Emīls Zolmanis.
The largest ponds were cleaned up, wooden equipment
used to regulate water levels in the pond was replaced
with cement water regulators. Several new ponds were
dug. Most of the ponds housed carp, a few housed tench,
and there were also decorative golden orfes, which are a
type of the common ide.
The territory of the Turaida Museum Reserve currently
has 26 known places where ponds existed long ago, and
17 of them actually have ponds.
A Fish Cellar
In 1912, an older building near a pond on the estate
was rebuilt into a fish cellar which was covered with a
cylindrical vault and had dolomite plates on the walls.
Red bricks were used around the windows and doors.
Pond water led through the basement filled special
running-water basins in which live fish could be kept
during the winter.
The museum reserve renovated the fish cellar and
in 1999 installed an exhibition “Fish Cellar,” where the
basins of live fish, as well as various tools used to sort
and transport fish can be viewed.
The fish cellar from the West
Fishing in the estate’s ponds during holidays
Running-water basins for live fish in the fish cellar
A dugout and fishing tools
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