Amboten Castle

Ordensburg Amboten
	Ruins of Amboten Castle
Conservation status:	ruin
Place:	Embuts
Geographical location	56 ° 30 '16.6 " N , 21 ° 49' 9.3" E Coordinates: 56 ° 30 '16.6 " N , 21 ° 49' 9.3" E

Amboten Castle ( Latvian Embūtes pilsdrupas ) is a ruin in Embūte (German Baltic Amboten), Latvia , which is now part of the municipality of Vaiņode (Weinoden). The castle goes back to the Bishop's Castle Amboten, which was the residence of the Bishop of Courland in northern Courland before Pilten Castle was built.

history

The region came under the rule of the Kurland diocese with the spa treaties . The pre-existing Curonian settlement is mentioned in chronicles as a place with strong Curonian resistance. From 1290 Burg Amboten was owned by the Livonian Order and in 1611 it belonged to Wilhelm Kettler . The castle was destroyed in the Great Northern War . In the sixteenth century the castle was converted into a chateau.

View of Amboten Castle, watercolor by Karl Willong in the so-called Paulucci album, around 1827

The last owners of the castle were the Hahn family . The castle burned down in 1919 and Baroness von Hahn moved to Germany. According to local rumors, the baroness set the fire herself to prevent nationalization by the Latvian government. However, nationalization had not yet been decided at the time of the fire, so that the baroness's involvement in the fire is doubted. After the Second World War, stones from the castle were used as building materials.

architecture

The bishop's castle was built as a hilltop castle on a narrow, steeply sloping knoll on the right bank of the Abbus, a left tributary of the Windau . The castle was built using the walls of the former castle, which can be seen from the division of the rooms and the building materials. Today the ruins are surrounded by trees and in poor condition.

supporting documents

↑ ^a ^b Armin Tuulse: The castles in Estonia and Latvia (= negotiations of the Estonian learned society . Volume 33 ). Õpetatud Eesti Seltsi Toimetused, S. 209 .
↑ Document text of the spa contract. Retrieved February 12, 2019 .
^ ^A ^b Imants Lancmanis : mansions in Courland . tape 4 , 2011, ISSN 1869-2451 .
^ Karl Woldemar von Löwis of Menar: Burgenlexikon für Alt-Livland . Walters and Rapa, Riga 1922, p. 45 ( digitized version ).

[Tuulse-1] Armin Tuulse: The castles in Estonia and Latvia (= negotiations of the Estonian learned society . Volume 33 ). Õpetatud Eesti Seltsi Toimetused, S. 209 .

[2] Document text of the spa contract. Retrieved February 12, 2019 .

[Lancmanis-3] A ^b Imants Lancmanis : mansions in Courland . tape 4 , 2011, ISSN 1869-2451 .

[Menar-4] Karl Woldemar von Löwis of Menar: Burgenlexikon für Alt-Livland . Walters and Rapa, Riga 1922, p. 45 ( digitized version ).