Lielvarde

The Lielvarde belt, Lielvardes josta, is a long narrow woven band in red on white carrying a sequence of geometric signs, made in this district and now the best-known single object of Latvian folk art, reproduced on passports, banknotes and in national symbolism; the signs have been read as everything from a decorative sequence to an encoded text, a debate that has never been settled. The town on the Daugava holds the Andrejs Pumpurs museum, devoted to the author of the epic poem Lacplesis, whose action is set here, and beside it a park of large oak sculptures by Karlis Jansons illustrating the epic, set along the riverbank below the ruins of a Livonian castle.

History

The area was a meeting zone of the Finnic Livonians and the Balts, and the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia records that a Baltic hill-fort here, Lennewarden, was taken in fief by Albert of Buxhoeveden in 1201; the site is called Dievukalns, Hill of the Gods. The Riga-Daugavpils railway of 1861 made the town grow around its station (Wikipedia, Lielvārde).

The main sights

• The oak sculpture park - the carved figures from the Lacplesis epic.
• The Pumpurs museum - the display on the poem and the belt.
• The castle ruins - the Livonian remains above the Daugava.
• The Lielvarde belt - the woven pattern and its interpretations.

When to go

May to September for the riverside park and the sculptures; the museum keeps daytime hours and closes on Mondays. Autumn colours the Daugava bank. Weekdays are quiet.

Before you go

The belt is a textile pattern rather than a place; the museum display is the way to see it. The sculptures are weathered wood in variable condition. The castle ruins are fragmentary. The visit takes half a day.

Nearby

Ogre lies northwest; Koknese is southeast up the Daugava.

Key facts