 Length: 3,4 km
Time: ~ 1 h; additionally time for visiting the castle and church must be calculated.
Road cover: ~ 0,9 km - asphalt, other materials - gravel, forest pathway, pavement
Beginning and end: Dundaga castle
Route: Dundaga castle - Dundaga Lutheran church - Doctor Dale and springwater - Crocodile - Islet - Park - Castle.
Marking: Does not exist, but for more successful walk at Dundaga tourist centre (in the castle) you can buy the map of Dundaga centre painted by artist Dace Čodera.*
Alternatives: You can go in the opposite direction on the route. You can start at any other point on the route as well.
1. Dundaga Castle. The largest and oldest in Northern Kurzeme. Built in the 3rd quarter of the 13th century.
Today the castle is the cultural, recreation and tourism centre of Dundaga community. It houses Dundaga art and music school as well. Exhibitions, theatrical performances, tastings, a hotel and rooms for seminars and festivities. The only permanent exhibition of medals in the Baltic States. (*1)
2. Dundaga Lutheran Church. Built in 1766 under the guidance of the owner of the castle Karl Ostensacken. Visiting the church you will notice the altarpiece by Janis Rozentāls ‘Easter morning’ (1912), but during services and concerts listen to the sound of organ built in 1859 by Latvian peasant Ansis Dinsbergs. In 1935 the church was bestowed a status of an architectural monument. Today there are 160 members in the parish. (*6)
3. Doctor Dale (Dakterleja) and Springwater. Medical service house (Doctors` office) in Dundaga has been established in 1811. In such a way also the name of river valley (Doctors Dale) in the centre of Dundaga was obtained.
During 1844-1854 one of the first Latvian doctors, also a linguist, Juris Bārs (1808-1879) worked there. He was the first to introduce the marking of a long vowel in the Latvian language with a horizontal dash above the letter.
A pharmacy has existed in Dakterleja since 1883. In the present building - since 1895 together with a garden for herbs, decorative shrubs and flowers. Popular spring of drinking water! (*13-14)
4. "Crocodile". A memorial sign (erected in 1995) dedicated to the history of Kurzeme and the strong men of Dundaga, also a reminder of the former Dundaga citizen Arvīds Blūmentāls - a great adventurer and crocodile hunter - and his adventures in Australia. He has been the prototype for Paul Hogan’s movie ‘Crocodile Dandy’. The sculpture of a crocodile is a present to Dundaga from Norberts Klaucēns, the Honour Consul of Latvia in Chicago, USA. The crocodile weighs 2 tons. Next to pharmacy - a memorial stone designed in 1989 to the victims of Stalin’s deportation in 1949 - the inhabitants of Dundaga community. The inscription on the stone says, "A dream of my motherland shall I put on my pillow".
(*9)
5. Islet, Park and Money Oak. At the back of the castle there is a small island - Kalnadārzs (Hill Garden). Judging from the jewellery and crocks found in the excavations, it seems that Kalnadārzs has been used as a fortification for the local inhabitants in the late iron age until the end of the building of Riga Dome chapter owned Dundaga brick castle during the change of the 13th and the 14th centuries. The park with the territory of 21.7 hectares situated next to the castle calls for taking a walk. Trees of 48 different species, including 15 giant trees, grow in the place cultivated back in the 17th century. One of them, the so-called ‘Money Oak’ has decorated the 100-rouble banknote issued in Latvia in 1919. The park is separated from the castle by a pond floated from the Pāce river.
(*2-5)
Dundaga municipality. Dundaga (1,17 Mb) »  |
