Baldone Manor, also called White Castle ( lv, Baltā pils),
is a manor house in
Baldone
Baldone (; german: Baldohn) is a town in Ķekava Municipality in the Semigallia region of Latvia. The town is famous for its sulfur water springs and was a spa resort.
Viktors Arājs
Viktors Arājs (13 January 1910 – 13 January 1988) was a ...
,
Baldone Municipality
Baldone Municipality ( lv, Baldones novads) is a former Latvian municipality situated partly in the province of Semigallia and partly in Vidzeme. The municipality was formed in 2008 by merging Baldone town and its countryside territory, with the ...
in the historical region of
Zemgale
Semigallia, also spelt Semigalia, ( lv, Zemgale; german: Semgallen; lt, Žiemgala; pl, Semigalia; liv, Zemgāl) is one of the Historical Latvian Lands located in the south of the Daugava river and the north of the Saule region of Samogitia. ...
, in
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 was built in 1901 as a hunting lodge ().
Presently Baldone Music School is working in the former
hunting lodge.
History
The castle was built near Baldone Forest by Adam Mickiewicz (1865-1920), who later became head of the Baltic Agricultural and State Property Administration. He was married to
Elisabeth Buckhaven.
Manor house was always painted white, and therefore has its name — White Castle ( lv, Baltā pils).
During the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, the castle housed a Russian army hospital until October 1915, and later a German army hospital. After the First World War, the White Castle became one of Baldone's spas, which belonged to the Mickiewicz family, but they did not occupy the entire manor house, and it was also used as children's shelter. Nicholas Mickiewicz who inherited the property, had a son in 1929
Denis Mickevich
Denis may refer to:
People
* Saint Denis of Paris, 3rd-century Christian martyr and first bishop of Paris
* Denis the Areopagite, Biblical figure
* Denis, son of Ampud (died 1236), baron in the Kingdom of Hungary
* Denis the Carthusian (1402– ...
who emigrated to German-occupied Poland at the beginning of World War II, later to the United States, where he became a professor of Russian literature at
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...
.
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
s Russian choir founders.
In September 1944 the German administration moved the orphanage to
Mencendarbe Manor
Mercendarbe Manor, also called Mencendorf Manor and Mencendarbe Manor (german: Gut Märzendorf) is a manor house in the historical region of Zemgale, in Latvia. History
Originally estate was owned by Peter von Biron (1724-1800), the last Duke o ...
, where a second orphanage was operating at that time. As a result, the premises were vacated and a German army infirmary moved in.
[http://manasvietas.blogspot.com/2015/05/baldones-balta-pils.html ]
After World War II, building was used by the Baldone Sanatorium, which could accommodate 75 people. It was both a boarding house for girls with
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...
and a boarding room in the gynecological department.
From 1980 the White Castle was owned by Baldone Hospital. Although the hospital was not built there, the collective farm "Baldone" built a dormitory where the collective farm workers lived.
In 1985, the Baldone School of Music was opened in the building, which became a cultural center where local children learned their first music skills and concert experience. In 1993, Baldone Elementary School of Music was established in parallel. In 2011, school was renamed the Baldone Music School by the name of the famous conductor Baldone County, Janis Dumins.
The historical interior of the castle has not survived.
Manor park
Manor park with exotic trees always has been well maintained, it is recorded in the Latvian List of natural resources.
[About Baldone](_blank)
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See also
* List of palaces and manor houses in Latvia
This is a list of palaces and manor houses in Latvia built after the 16th century. Palaces and manors which are now part of the Zemgale region were then part of the Selonia region, and therefore are differentiated for clarity. This list does not ...
References
Manor houses in Latvia
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