Padise Abbey

Cistercian monks from Dünamünde near Riga were active at Padise from the thirteenth century, settled here in 1310 after losing their abbey, and built the monastery in stone through the fourteenth, a fortified complex with church, cloister, refectory, cellars and defensive walls, since this was a frontier and the community had been attacked. It survived the Reformation but was dissolved in 1559, during the Livonian War, made into a fortress and later a manor, and burned after a lightning strike in 1766, after which it stood as a ruin. Consolidation and partial restoration through the twentieth century and again in the 2010s made the structure safe and accessible, with walkways, the vaulted cellars, the church shell and the tower open. A river runs beside it and a manor and park stand nearby.

History

Cistercian monks from Dünamünde Abbey, near present-day Riga, were interested in Padise by 1283, when King Eric V of Denmark wrote of land for a monastery here, and probably had a presence for decades before. After the Teutonic Knights seized Dünamünde in 1305, King Eric VI allowed the monks to build a fortified monastery at Padise, where they moved in 1310, and stone building began in 1317. Still unfinished, it was burned during the St George's Night Uprising of 1343; rebuilding began after 1370, the main works were complete by 1445, and the main building was consecrated in 1448, when the abbey, with estates in Estonia and southern Finland, was among the most important spiritual centres of the country. It survived the Reformation, but in 1559, during the Livonian War, Gotthard Kettler, last Master of the Livonian Order, dissolved it and made it a fortress, which passed between the Swedes and the Russians until the Swedes regained it in 1580. In 1622 Gustavus Adolphus gave the estates to Thomas Ramm, burgomaster of Riga, whose family held them until 1919 and turned the abbey into a baroque country house; after it burned in a lightning strike in 1766, its stone went into a neoclassical manor nearby (Wikipedia, Padise Abbey).

What's there

• The church shell - the roofless nave and its walls.
• Vaulted cellars - the surviving undercrofts beneath the complex.
• Defensive walls - the fortification of the monastery precinct.
• The tower - the climbable part of the structure.

When to go

May to September when the site is staffed and open; winter access is restricted. Concerts and events are held in the ruins in summer. Mornings are quietest.

Before you go

Opening hours are seasonal and the site closes for much of the winter. Interpretation is limited. The interior is roofless and exposed to weather. It takes about an hour.

Nearby

Tallinn lies northeast; Haapsalu is southwest.

Key facts