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This ensured a reserve against emergencies, and there
were efforts to protect farmers against famine and other
problems. The parish elder supervised the magazine.
The Turaida Parish magazine was built between 1830
and 1843. The foundations and walls were made of field-
stones and chips of dark granite used to fill the cracks. The
entrance is at the centre of the southern facade, and it
is decorated with four round columns. Interestingly, the
design of the building embodies a transfer from the
Biedermeier aesthetic to the Neo-Gothic style. This is seen
in the blind window apertures at the eastern and western
ends of the building. An ancient border stone with the
symbols of the Rīga archbishop is part of the northern wall.
The ridged roof is covered with tiles.
After agrarian reforms in the 1920s, the building was
received by a former servant at the Turaida Estate,
Eduards Mardaks, in return for his participation in Latvia’s
liberation battles. In 2005, the Turaida Museum Reserve
bought the building from a private individual and
began to restore it.
The Information Stand
“The History of the Turaida Cemetery”
An information stand about the history of the Turaida
cemetery stands outside of the cemetery’s chapel. The
cemetery was created in 1773 in a place that is level
and dry and surrounded by linden, pine and birch trees.
People of various religious dominations are buried here
even now. Among those who are buried at the cemetery
is the Latvian fable teller Kārlis Zemītis (1862-1901).
Memories of those who have passed away help people
to maintain special traditions such as cemetery festivals
and commemorative events to remember the dead.
Cemetery festivals are a typical event in Latvia. In
Vidzeme, they usually are held in July or August,
between the major work of the summer and the fall.
The festivals allow people to think about the temporal
and the eternal. Families come together, relatives
meet relatives, and they all commemorate those who
have passed on. Gravesites are cleaned up and decorated
with flowers. During the autumn, there are
commemorative events at cemeteries – candle evenings
when candles are lit in commemoration of the
souls of the dead.
An informational stand about the Turaida cemetery
The chapel of the Turaida cemetery
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THE TURAIDA ESTATE