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The well was filled in during the 18th century and rediscovered
and restored in 1992. The well is still being used today.
The residential building
During the first half of the 14th century, a residential building was
erected in the south-eastern part of the yard, with representation
rooms, a chapel and the castle’s archive. The eastern wall of the
building had arcade niches and was the castle’s defensive wall.
Stone steps form the yard led to a wooden gallery and entrances to
the rooms of the main floor. The building burned down in 1776.
Remnants were conserved in 1996.
The southern gate
The southern gate was between the aforementioned residential
building and the tower-shaped southern wing of the castle.
It was in one of the initial arcade niches of the defensive wall. The
southern gate offered an exit to the southern forecastle and the
Gauja River.
The southern forecastle
The southern forecastle was built in the 13th century. It had a
defensive wall from the South, atop which there was once a guard
facility with a stone breastwork and shooting apertures. The lower
part of the defensive wall, which was made of large fieldstones, has
survived.
The foundations of the defensive wall divide the forecastle into
two parts today. The internal defensive wall is older. It was
wrecked during a war, so a second defensive wall was installed.
This expanded the territory of the southern forecastle.
A stable for horses was in the south-eastern corner of the fore-
castle. A small building to process iron ore was on the eastern side
of the defensive wall.
The ricocheting profile
A defensive wall with a ricocheting profile – a massive and tilted
protuberance – was built in the 14th century in the south-east-
ern part of the castle to strengthen its defences. It was made of
rectangular blocks of lime. Rocks thrown from the guard
facility hit the slanted profile on the lower part of the wall and
changed direction, so attackers found it more difficult to avoid
the falling rocks.
The southern defensive wall of the castle
The defensive wall at the southern end of the castle initially
had an arcade of niches. These were approximately 2.6 m wide
and 0.8 m deep, covered with a semi-circular arch. Turaida
is the only Medieval stone castle in Latvia with such arcades.
The arcades were bricked in when the defensive wall was rebuilt
in the 15th century.
The eastern and southern wall
of the tower-shaped southern
block, drawing by G. Jansons
The southern forecastle of the castle
Structures to the East of the castle
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THE STONE CASTLE OF TURAIDA