Aluksne

Aluksne stands on the shore of Aluksne lake in the northeast, at one of the higher elevations in the country, and its centre is a landscape park laid out by the von Vietinghoff family in the eighteenth century with follies, a temple, a bridge, an obelisk and old trees running down to the water, one of the oldest parks of its kind in Latvia. On an island in the lake are the ruins of a Livonian Order castle. The Bible Museum in the town marks the work of Ernst Glück, the pastor here who made the first complete translation of the Bible into Latvian between 1685 and 1694; the oaks he planted to mark its completion still stand. A narrow-gauge railway runs to Gulbene.

History

People have lived around the lake continuously since about the start of the 1st millennium AD, and the area appears in the Pskov Chronicles in the 13th century. In 1342 the Teutonic Order began a castle on the largest island in the lake, which became the centre of the district, and the town became part of the Swedish Empire in 1629 (Wikipedia, Alūksne).

What's there

• The landscape park - the eighteenth-century grounds and follies by the lake.
• The castle island - the Order ruins in the lake.
• The Bible Museum - the display on Glück's Latvian translation.
• Glück's oaks - the trees planted to mark the translation.

When to go

May to September for the park and the lake; the narrow-gauge railway to Gulbene runs a seasonal service. Autumn colours the park. Winter is long and cold at this altitude.

Practical notes

The castle island ruins are reached only by boat or on ice. The museums are small and labelled mainly in Latvian. The town is remote from the rest of the country. Facilities are modest.

Nearby

Veclaicene hills lie north; Gulbene is southwest by the narrow-gauge line.

Key facts