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Alūksne
Alūksne ()) is a town on the shores of Lake Alūksne in northeastern Latvia near the borders with Estonia and Russia. It is the seat of Alūksne municipality. Alūksne is the highest elevated Latvian city, located in East Vidzeme Upland at 217 m above sea level. The high elevation of the city affects the social and physical arrangement of the place. History The region around Lake Alūksne was originally settled by Finnic-speaking tribes, and from the 8th-12th centuries by Latgalians. The date of settlement at the current location of the town, then known as ''Olysta'', ''Alyst'', and ''Volyst'', is given in the chronicles of Pskov as 1284. The later name "Alūksne" comes from the Latgalian word ''olūksna'', meaning a spring in the forest. The Latgalian inhabitants of the settlement were conquered by the German crusaders of the Livonian Order in 1224. They built in 1284 a wooden castle named Marienburg (after Mary, the mother of Jesus) on a nearby island, which serve ...
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Alūksne Castle 1661
Alūksne ()) is a town on the shores of Lake Alūksne in northeastern Latvia near the borders with Estonia and Russia. It is the seat of Alūksne municipality. Alūksne is the highest elevated Latvian city, located in East Vidzeme Upland at 217 m above sea level. The high elevation of the city affects the social and physical arrangement of the place. History The region around Lake Alūksne was originally settled by Finnic-speaking tribes, and from the 8th-12th centuries by Latgalians. The date of settlement at the current location of the town, then known as ''Olysta'', ''Alyst'', and ''Volyst'', is given in the chronicles of Pskov as 1284. The later name "Alūksne" comes from the Latgalian word ''olūksna'', meaning a spring in the forest. The Latgalian inhabitants of the settlement were conquered by the German crusaders of the Livonian Order in 1224. They built in 1284 a wooden castle named Marienburg (after Mary, the mother of Jesus) on a nearby island, which serv ...
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Lake Alūksne
Lake Alūksne ( lv, Alūksnes ezers) is located in Alūksne Municipality, Latvia. The city of Alūksne is located by the lake. Lake Aluksne is the 11th biggest lake in Latvia (15.437 km²). At its deepest the lake is 15.2 m deep, but the average depth is 7.1 m. The lake contains twelve different species of fish. There are four islands within Lake Aluksne. The ruins of historic Alūksne Castle are on the largest island (known as Castle Island or St. Mary's Island, because the castle was originally called Marienburg, "St. Mary's Castle"). Alūksne River (a tributary of Pededze The Pededze ( et, Pedetsi jõgi) is a river in Latvia and Estonia. It has a length of of which 131 km runs through Latvia and 26 km through Estonia . It flows generally south. It is a right tributary of the Aiviekste, the source of Pe ...) flows out of the lake. References Website of the lake's manager Aluksne Alūksne {{vidzeme-geo-stub ...
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Alūksne Municipality
Alūksne Municipality ( lv, Alūksnes novads) is a municipality in Vidzeme, Latvia. It is located in the northeast of the country and borders Ape in the west, Balvi Municipality, Gulbene Municipality and Alūksne Municipality in the south, Pskov Oblast of Russia in the east and Võru County of Estonia in the north. The administrative center of the municipality is Alūksne. History The municipality was formed in 2009 by merging Alsviķi parish, Anna parish, Ilzene parish, Jaunalūksne parish, Jaunanna parish, Jaunlaicene parish, Kalncempji parish, Liepna parish, Maliena parish, Mālupe parish, Mārkalne parish, Pededze parish, Veclaicene parish, Zeltiņi parish, Ziemeri parish, and the town of Alūksne. Twin towns — sister cities Alūksne is twinned with: * Strugo-Krasnensky District, Russia * Ostrovsky District, Russia * Pechorsky District, Russia * Pskov, Russia * Haanja, Estonia * Misso, Estonia * Rõuge, Estonia * Vastseliina, Estonia * Võru, Estoni ...
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Alūksne Castle
Alūksne Castle ( lv, Marienburgas pils, Alūksnes pils; german: Marienburg) is a castle of Teutonic Knights in current Alūksne, North-Eastern Latvia. History The castle was built in 1342 on the largest of the islands in the Lake Alūksne and called ''Marienburg'' (after Mary, the mother of Jesus). The first castle was constructed by the Landmeister Burkhard von Dreileben. It was part of a major reinforcement of the Eastern border of Livonia, the same year another major castle nearby (in Vastseliina) was founded as well. Soon thereafter, center of komturei was moved from Gaujiena to Alūksne. Tuulse, Armin (1942). ''Die Burgen in Estland und Lettland'', pp 147-148. Dorpater Estnischer Verlag The strength of the castle was repeatedly proven by repelling a number of attacks in the 16th century. Alūksne was captured by the troops of Ivan IV of Russia in 1560 during the Livonian War The Livonian War (1558–1583) was the Russian invasion of Old Livonia, a ...
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Alūksne New Castle
Alūksne New Castle is a castle in the city of Alūksne in eastern Latvia. It was built between 1859 and 1864 by Baron Alexander von Vietinghoff in the English Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ... style. References Alūksne Castles in Latvia {{Latvia-castle-stub ...
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Districts Of Latvia
Until 2009 the districts of Latvia, introduced in 1949 by the Soviet occupation authorities to supersede counties, were divided into 77 cities ( lv, pilsēta), 10 amalgamated municipalities ( lv, novads), 24 rural territories ( lv, lauku teritorija) and 475 parishes ( lv, pagasts). For the new administrative divisions from 1 July 2021, see Administrative divisions of Latvia. Aizkraukle District * Aiviekste Parish * Aizkraukle * Bebri Parish * Daudzese Parish * Irši Parish * Jaunjelgava * Klintaine Parish * Koknese Parish * Kurmene Parish * Mazzalve Parish * Nereta Parish * Pilskalne Parish * Pļaviņas * Sece Parish * Sērene Parish * Skrīveri Parish * Staburags Parish * Sunākste Parish * Valle Parish * Vietalva Parish * Zalve Parish Alūksne District * Alūksne * Ape * Alsviķi Parish * Anna Parish * Gaujiena Parish * Ilzene Parish * Jaunalūksne Parish * Jaunanna Parish * Jaunlaicene Parish * Kalncempji Parish * Liepna Parish * Malie ...
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Vidzeme Upland
The Vidzeme Upland or the Vidzeme Highland ( lv, Vidzemes augstiene) is a hilly area of higher elevation in northeastern Latvia, named after the historical region of Vidzeme. Sometimes it is referred to as the Central Vidzeme Upland, to distinguish it from another hilly area of Vidzeme, Alūksne Upland, also known as the "East Vidzeme Upland". Geography The Vidzeme Upland is part of the drainage divide between Gauja and Daugava river basins. The upland contains the highest point of Latvia, the Gaiziņkalns hill. The plateau is based on a high elevation of bedrock, which is covered by the thickest Quaternary sediment cover in Latvia - on average 80 m, but in some places even up to 120-170 m thick. Therefore, the bedrock is exposed only in some places at the foot of the plateau. The average height of Vidzeme highlands is 250 m. There are several high peaks in the plateau: * Gaizinkalns (311.5 m) - the highest peak in Latvia and the second highest Baltic States, * (296.8 m), * ...
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Livonian Order
The Livonian Order was an autonomous branch of the Teutonic Order, formed in 1237. From 1435 to 1561 it was a member of the Livonian Confederation. History The order was formed from the remnants of the Livonian Brothers of the Sword after their defeat by Samogitians in 1236 at the Battle of Schaulen (Saule). They were incorporated into the Teutonic Knights and became known as the Livonian Order in 1237. In the summer of that year, the Master of Prussia Hermann Balk rode into Riga to install his men as castle commanders and administrators of Livonia. In 1238, the Teutonic Knights of Livonia signed the Treaty of Stensby with the Kingdom of Denmark. Under this agreement, Denmark would support the expansion ambitions of the order in exchange for northern maritime Estonia. In 1242, the Livonian Order tried to take the city of Novgorod. However, they were defeated by Alexander Nevsky in the Battle on the Ice. Fortresses as Paide in land ceded by Denmark in the Treaty of Ste ...
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Latvia
Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the Baltic states; and is bordered by Estonia to the north, Lithuania to the south, Russia to the east, Belarus to the southeast, and shares a maritime border with Sweden to the west. Latvia covers an area of , with a population of 1.9 million. The country has a temperate seasonal climate. Its capital and largest city is Riga. Latvians belong to the ethno-linguistic group of the Balts; and speak Latvian, one of the only two surviving Baltic languages. Russians are the most prominent minority in the country, at almost a quarter of the population. After centuries of Teutonic, Swedish, Polish-Lithuanian and Russian rule, which was mainly executed by the local Baltic German aristocracy, the independent Re ...
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Crusade
The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were intended to recover Jerusalem and its surrounding area from Islamic rule. Beginning with the First Crusade, which resulted in the recovery of Jerusalem in 1099, dozens of Crusades were fought, providing a focal point of European history for centuries. In 1095, Pope Urban II proclaimed the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont. He encouraged military support for Byzantine emperor AlexiosI against the Seljuk Turks and called for an armed pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Across all social strata in western Europe, there was an enthusiastic response. The first Crusaders had a variety of motivations, including religious salvation, satisfying feudal obligations, opportunities for renown, and economic or political advantage. Later crusades were condu ...
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Castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble. This is distinct from a palace, which is not fortified; from a fortress, which was not always a residence for royalty or nobility; from a ''pleasance'' which was a walled-in residence for nobility, but not adequately fortified; and from a fortified settlement, which was a public defence – though there are many similarities among these types of construction. Use of the term has varied over time and has also been applied to structures such as hill forts and 19th-20th century homes built to resemble castles. Over the approximately 900 years when genuine castles were built, they took on a great many forms with many different features, although some, such as curtain walls, arrowslits, and portcullises, were ...
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Latgalian Language
Latgalian (''latgalīšu volūda'', lv, latgaliešu valoda) is an Eastern Baltic language belonging to the Baltic branch often spoken in Latgale, the eastern part of Latvia. It is debated whether it is a separate language with heavy Latvian influence, due to historical mutual exposure, or an eastern dialect of Latvian. Nevertheless, its standardized form is recognized and protected as a "historical variety of the Latvian language" ''(vēsturisks latviešu valodas paveids)'' under national law. The 2011 Latvian census established that 8.8% of Latvia's inhabitants, or 164,500 people, speak Latgalian daily. 97,600 of them live in Latgale, 29,400 in Riga and 14,400 in the Riga Planning Region. History Originally Latgalians were a tribe living in modern Vidzeme and Latgale. It is thought that they spoke the Latvian language, which later spread through the rest of modern Latvia, absorbing features of the Old Curonian, Semigallian, Selonian and Livonian languages. The Lat ...
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