Zaube was home to the order's economic castle of the Sigulda Vogt. Zaube is not one of the most famous places in modern Latvia; it is located 11 km southeast of Nītaures, in the Amata region (formerly in the Cēsis district), in Zaube parish. Zaube parish (Latvian: Zaubes pagasts) is one of the five territorial units of the Amata region of Latvia. It is situated in the southern part of the region. The largest settlements in the parish are the villages of Zaube (the parish center), Annas, Berzs, and Kligene. Along the Nītaures road, in the northern part of the village, stands the Zaube Lutheran Church, built in 1854. Less than half a kilometer south of it are the ruins of Zaube Castle on the territory of the former Jaunpils estate, on the right bank of the Berzupīte river, in the estate park.
As written in mid-20th century travel guides: A road lined with lush trees leads to the settlement of Zaube. In its center, there is an old park of about 3 hectares, where during the Livonian Order times a small stone castle was built – the St. George’s Castle. The castle ruins are surrounded by a deep ravine, which used to be filled with water from Lake Zaube to strengthen the castle’s defense. According to legend, an underground passage led from the castle to Bird’s Ravine (Putnu grava), located 1 kilometer from here.
There is some confusion in literature regarding the castle in Zaube, related to the fact that it was called by different names at different times. In 1437 - Jurgenborgh; 1464 - Jurgenburg; 1498 - Jurgesborg; 1601 - Georgenberg; 1680 - Giorgiens borg, Georgeburg, Jurgenburg; until 1926 in Latvian - Jaunpils manor. Nowadays, besides the German names Jürgenburg or Georgenburg, the castle and place are also called Zaube or Jaunpils in literature. It should be remembered that in western Latvia there is a medieval castle with a similar name – Jaunpils. For this reason, it is often mistakenly written that the ancestral estate of the barons Klodt von Jürgensburg was located in Courland, referring to that Jaunpils castle. In fact, their ancestral estate is the castle in Jaunpils-Zaube in Livonia.
The surroundings of Zaube came into the possession of the Livonian Order in the 13th century. Historian I.G. Arndt believed that the castle here was built in 1257, but this date lacks documentary confirmation, as he based it on Jürgen Helms. Karl von Lewis of Menar wrote: "Jürgensburg in the Riga district was one of the smaller order castles, the time of its construction is unknown." I. Stern believes that the castles Zaube and Skujene were built before 1437.
Initially, the German conquerors built their castles along the Gauja River, often choosing former administrative centers of local peoples for castle construction (for example, Turaida). In the 14th century, due to intensive development of conquered territories, new stone castles appeared, which, compared to the previous administrative division and trade routes, were located on a kind of periphery. Among them are Nītaures, Piebalga, Zaube, and Arājs.
Such peripheral castles were mostly built much simpler and were less fortified. They were usually built according to a “castella” plan, based on four square walls. They were typically complemented by one tower. On the basis of these castles, buildings could form where the castle courtyard was surrounded by buildings, and the number of towers was sometimes greater. The castle in Zaube was built on the right bank of the Berzupīte river, where it flows out of Lake Augšezers and flows into Lake Lējasēzers. To the south on the Berzupīte river, a mill pond was created. The castle’s fortress wall formed the inner courtyard. The tree-covered castle site on the plan forms a large quadrangle, which is surrounded on three sides by an artificially created moat. The castle was built from boulders.
The castle site has a depression in the middle, and at both ends, there are elevations about one meter high. If this depression was not dug out during the construction of a sports ground, then it may serve as a landmark where buildings were located. At the castle entrance near the southern wall, there is a mound on the terrain – here was a quadrangular tower with walls 2 meters thick. The tower’s interior measured 5 by 6 meters on the plan. Ruins of the tower have survived to a height of 1-1.5 meters. A similar mound can be seen at the southeast near the castle entrance – the foundation of a massive buttress (3.5 by 4 meters). Possibly, it was erected here to prevent the river from washing away the castle corner. It has survived to a height of 3 meters.
Fragments of the stone fortress wall 1.5 meters thick have survived in places, mostly overgrown with turf and shrubs. In the southeast corner of the courtyard was a residential building. The first floor had three rooms. Cellars were located under the building. There may have been other structures on the courtyard territory.
Zaube Castle (Jürgensborgh) is first mentioned in historical sources on August 22, 1437, in a letter from the master of the Livonian Order to the grand master of the Teutonic Order. In some other 15th-century documents, the Zaube parish and Zaube road are mentioned several times. As subordinate to the Land Marshal of the Livonian Order, Zaube Castle is mentioned in 1467 in the list of Livonian castles attached to the order chronicles.
In 1483, Archbishop Stefan Grube arrived in Riga from Lithuania accompanied by 70 horsemen, whom the citizens of Riga and the cathedral chapter solemnly received and recognized as their archbishop. The master of the Livonian Order was outraged by Grube’s arrival in Riga and began gathering his men again to fight Riga, while the citizens of Riga broke the truce with the master, attacked Koknese, using armed detachments of the Riga burgher Berens as a base for strikes against the order’s possessions. The citizens of Riga destroyed and burned order castles in Jaunpils (Zaube), Skujene, and Piebalga – at that time, the archbishopric’s territory was effectively annexed to the order’s possessions.
The surroundings of Cēsis began to be ravaged by the Livonian War in early 1559 during the second wave of Russian invasions when military actions moved into Livonia. The invaders also occupied the castles of Skujene, Nītaures, and Zaube, as well as most of the "Latvian end" of the Riga archbishopric. After the collapse of the Livonian states, Chancellor Just or Jost Klodt received the Jürgensburg castle (Zaube) as a fief from the last master of the Livonian Order, Gotthard Kettler, on March 22, 1561, from which he took the surname Klodt von Jürgensburg. According to other sources, in 1561 the order master von Galen granted this estate to magistrate Jost (Just) Klodt, but this information is not accurate.
Until 1561, the castle had only a chapel, but in the 1560s Just Klodt built a new, separate parish church. The Zaube Lutheran Church is now an interesting architectural structure, and a local legend is associated with it and its founder: the church was built in 1563 from oak, initially without a bell tower, and stood in the castle courtyard. The bell tower was built by nobleman S. Klodt because in 1577, during the siege of Cēsis Castle, he secretly escaped by crawling stealthily at night through the Russian army camp. Because of this, he was allowed to take all the oaks growing on the estate territory for the church’s construction. The church was built at its current location in 1696, also from oak. From that church, oak doors made by Latvian rural craftsmen have survived to this day.
In July 1577, the strongest invasion of Russian troops into Latgale and Livonia during the entire Livonian War began. This was Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible’s reaction to the betrayal of his ally Duke Magnus. Arājs and Cēsis suffered heavily. Baltazar Russow’s chronicle describes that on August 28, 1577, Ivan the Terrible’s Russian troops departed from Ērgļi to Cēsis, taking and devastating Arājs, Jaunpils [Zaube], and other castles along the way. People were taken captive.
The year of the final destruction of Zaube Castle is unknown, but there is a version that it happened in the 17th century during the Swedish-Polish wars, when the surrounding peasants also suffered greatly. One kilometer northeast of the castle ruins rises the hill Legerkalns (Camp Hill). From here, supposedly, Swedish artillery destroyed the castle.
After Duke Charles of Södermanland (later Swedish King Charles IX) conquered nine Vidzeme castles in one day, including Jürgensburg, Polish commander Sheysinsky regained the castle "Gorgenberk" in the summer of 1601. Then the Klodt family again owned the castle. It is unknown when the castle was abandoned. In the Swedish revision of 1601, only the owner of Zaube, Stephan Klodt, and his estate with 60 arklas of land and 33 peasant households are mentioned. In 1613, there were only 35 inhabited and 45 uninhabited houses in the Zaube castle district. In 1638, the Swedish revision act mentions Gustav Klodt as the owner of the estate and Georg Lode as the tenant.
Zaube Castle is known for its werewolf trial. The word "werewolf" is translated into all languages worldwide. But few know that several centuries ago, Livonia was known in Europe for its werewolves, just as Transylvania was for vampires. Interrogation protocols of Livonian werewolves, dated 1691, are kept in the historical archive – anyone interested can review them. These protocols are detailed by the Baltic historian Herman von Brügge in the work "The Werewolf of Livonia," translated into many languages. The trial took place in Jürgensburg (Zaube). At that time, there was a castle belonging to the Klodt family. The judges sat in this castle. The defendant was old Tis – a native of Livonia, 85 years old. The matter was werewolfism and other evil deeds.
Tis confirmed that he was indeed a werewolf, as he had already been accused in a trial in the town of Nītau (now Nītaures), where Baron Krossmer was the judge. This consisted of Tis throwing a wolf’s skin over his shoulders, after which he felt like a wolf. He gathered with others like himself into packs, traveled long distances with them, slaughtered livestock in farms, which he then roasted on stolen grills and ate with the gray brothers at crossroads. They did not eat raw meat. The verdict was: ten lashes for idolatry and release. It is assumed that the reason for such a mild punishment was that there were many such Tises in Livonia. What conclusion can be drawn from the stories about Livonian werewolves? Not that Livonia was a land of fanged monsters, but that Christianity’s position here was very fragile. People went to church but secretly continued to practice ancient pagan cults and perform rituals inherited from their ancestors. Werewolfism was part of these rituals. This picture is typical not only for Latvia, where Christianity arrived later than in other European countries.
But let us return to the Klodt family, owners of the castle, from which, by the way, the famous sculptor Peter Karlovich Klodt originated.
Speaking of Charles XII – in Zaube, the legend of Charles XII’s lindens is still known. If you go from Zaube to Katrīna, there is a hill called Kepens. On this hill stand three lindens. It is said that these lindens were planted by Swedish King Charles XII when he left Vidzeme. He planted the lindens upside down, with roots up, and wished to see whether he would return to Vidzeme or not, whether the Latvian people would be freed or not. The lindens grew, but the Swedes did not start another war.
In 1780, the Jürgensburg estate, which always belonged to the eldest in the family, passed into outside ownership. At that time, one branch of the Klodts moved to Russia, and family members began to pass on "to their heirs only the family coat of arms of their once wealthy ancestors instead of property." Their baronial dignity with the family coat of arms was recognized in Russia on October 17, 1853. The shield of the coat of arms is crowned with a Swedish baronial crown and flanked on both sides by knight’s helmets. Above the right helmet stand two black fire-shovels, formerly belonging to the ancient coat of arms; and above the left, between two black wings, a black wall with three battlements, surrounded by three six-pointed stars. The helmet covers are blue with gold on the right side and red with silver on the left. The shield is supported by two golden lions looking backward.
The Klodt family owned Zaube Castle until 1790. When the castle was abandoned is unknown. In 1756, it was described and sketched by researcher I.K. Brotze. He wrote that only ruins remained of the castle, which means the castle was destroyed long before that. The current plan of Zaube Castle was made by A. Caune in 2002.
Today, in the center of Zaube, there is a large park of about 3 hectares with alleys, castle ruins, and several natural monuments. The castle ruins in the park are surrounded by a deep ravine – a channel that used to be filled with water from the lake. The ravine begins 2.5 km west of the park and is one of the most beautiful and interesting natural landscape sites around Zaube. A small river flows through the ravine, its banks overgrown with ash, linden, elm, and other broadleaf tree species. The grassy cover hosts many rare flowering plants. Now the ruins are overgrown with trees, and a sports ground was previously located in the center. A few dozen meters from the Zaube mill pond and near the ruins on the west side grows the Zaubes oak, whose trunk circumference reaches 8 meters.
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Author: Aivars Gulbis
