Visit Sigulda

A taste of Sigulda

Sigulda is Latvia's adventure-sports and castle-spotting capital — a hilly, forested town wedged into the steep sandstone valley of the Gauja river, with three different castles within walking distance of each other. The atmospheric red-brick ruins of Sigulda Medieval Castle (1207, the Brothers of the Sword stronghold) sit on one bluff; the 19th-century Sigulda New Castle (now the town hall) stands beside it; across the valley on the other side of the river, the bigger, more dramatic Turaīda Castle (started 1214, repeatedly rebuilt) commands a panoramic ridge above the trees, with the moving legend of the Rose of Turaīda — a beautiful young woman murdered in 1620 nearby, defending her honour — commemorated at the chapel and grave below. Connect the two sides on the dramatic cable car suspended high over the river gorge, the only such cable car in Latvia, or take the longer walk through the Gauja National Park (Latvia's largest, 91,786 hectares of sandstone cliffs, caves, and old-growth forest). Sigulda also has Latvia's only year-round bobsleigh-and-luge track (built for the 1980 Moscow Olympics; you can ride the practice 'wok' year-round and the real summer bobsleigh from May to October) and a working tarzanas adventure park.