Cesvaine () (german: Seßwegen) ) is a town in

Madona Municipality Madona Municipality ( lv, Madonas novads) is a municipality in Vidzeme, Latvia. The administrative center is Madona. The total area of the municipality is , and the population in January 2013 was 26,953.Madona municipality Population Register Of ...

Vidzeme Region Vidzeme Region ( lv, Vidzemes reģions), officially Vidzeme Planning Region ( lv, Vidzemes plānošanas reģions, link=no) is one of the five planning regions of Latvia, it is situated in the northern part of Latvia. The state institution was found ...

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 ...

. It is home to the Cesvaine Palace, built in 1896 near the ruins of previous medieval castles.

History

During the period before the Livonian Crusade in the 13th century, the territory of modern Cesvaine was part of the

Principality of Jersika The principality of Jersika ( la, Gerzika, terra Lettia, german: Gerzika, Zargrad, russian: Ерсика, Герцике; also known as ''Лотыголa'') was an early medieval Latgalian principality in eastern modern-day Latvia and one of th ...

and was inhabited by ancient Latgalians. It was first mentioned in written sources in 1209 ( Latin: Urbs Zcessowe) in the treaty between bishop Albert of Riga and Visvaldis of Jersika. In 1211 the

Bishopric of Riga The Archbishopric of Riga ( la, Archiepiscopatus Rigensis, nds, Erzbisdom Riga) was an archbishopric in Medieval Livonia, a subject to the Holy See. It was established in 1186 as the bishopric of Livonia at Ikšķile, then after moving to Riga ...

and the Livonian Brothers of Sword partitioned the lands of Jersika between themselves. The territory of Cesvaine fell under the control of the Livonian Brothers of the Sword, however in 1213 some of the lands were exchanged and Cesvaine became property of the Bishop of Riga. In the beginning of the 15th century, a stone castle was built in Cesvaine and the settlement started to grow. By the end of the 16th century there were already 80 houses in Cesvaine. During the Livonian War in 1577, defenders of Cesvaine castle refused to surrender. Consequently, the Russian tsar

Ivan the Terrible Ivan IV Vasilyevich (russian: Ива́н Васи́льевич; 25 August 1530 – ), commonly known in English as Ivan the Terrible, was the grand prince of Moscow from 1533 to 1547 and the first Tsar of all Russia from 1547 to 1584. Ivan ...

ordered that the castle and whole town be destroyed. After the war in 1582 Cesvaine became part of Duchy of Livonia. In 1656 during the

Second Northern War The Second Northern War (1655–60), (also First or Little Northern War) was fought between Sweden and its adversaries the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1655–60), the Tsardom of Russia (Russo-Swedish War (1656–1658), 1656–58), Brande ...

Russians again seized the castle and destroyed the town. A new period in the history of Cesvaine started in the year 1815 when the settlement and nearby lands were bought by the

baron Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knig ...

von Wulf. Cesvaine became centre of the

manor Manor may refer to: Land ownership *Manorialism or "manor system", the method of land ownership (or "tenure") in parts of medieval Europe, notably England *Lord of the manor, the owner of an agreed area of land (or "manor") under manorialism *Man ...

and rapid development started in the second half of the 19th century. In 1932 Cesvaine became a village in the Republic of Latvia. It was granted town rights in 1991. Since 2009, the town has become the official administrative centre of Cesvaine municipality.

Notable people

Jakob Lenz Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz (23 January 1751, or 12 January in the Julian calendar – 4 June 1792, or 24 May in the Julian calendar) was a Baltic German writer of the ''Sturm und Drang'' movement. Life Lenz was born in Sesswegen (Cesvaine), ...

(1751–1792), writer

Twin towns — sister cities

Cesvaine is twinned with: * Coulaines, France * Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine *

Lagardelle-sur-Lèze Lagardelle-sur-Lèze (, literally ''Lagardelle on Lèze''; oc, La Gardèla de Lesa) is a commune in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern France. Population The inhabitants of the commune are called ''Lagardellois'' in French. Twinning ...

, France *

Märjamaa Märjamaa is a borough ( et, alev) in Rapla County, Estonia. It is the administrative center of Märjamaa Parish. Märjamaa has a population of 2,961 as of 29 November 2012, making it the largest settlement in the whole of Märjamaa Parish. Nota ...

, Estonia * Volkhov, Russia *

Weyhe Weyhe is a municipality in the district of Diepholz, Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated approximately 15 km south of Bremen. History First mentioned in 860, when a sick girl from "Wege" travelled to the grave of Saint Willehad in Bremen ...

, Germany

Gallery

File:Cesvaines katoļu baznīca 2001-08-04.jpg, Roman Catholic church in Cesvaine File:Cesvaines piemineklis represētajiem 2003-04-18.jpg, Monument to victims of Soviet repressions in Cesvaine File:Cesvaines stacija 25.JPG, Cesvaine railway station File:Cesvaine Lutheran Church 05.JPG, Cesvaine lutheran church

References

{{Authority control Towns in Latvia 1991 establishments in Latvia Kreis Wenden Madona Municipality Vidzeme

History

Notable people

Twin towns — sister cities

Gallery

See also

References