Time travel on a Latvian film set, and an English country house in the Baltics

Sometimes on this trip we have driven quite long distances with little to see and do apart from the everyday tasks of dog-walking, servicing Florence and getting her, ourselves or our clothes clean. Suddenly we have found a corner of Latvia where there is something to see at every turn, and better still, it isn't all castles - much as we love a good castle. The highlight today was surreal - a film lot in the middle of the countryside with several full sets and props including a full scale original Russian locomotive, a viking village and Riga in the Second World War. 

World War Two Riga

We arrived at lunchtime, and had planned to eat in Florence in the car park before going inside. As I took Max out for his hourly pee I saw a man ambling over to the little ticket hut, no doubt having spotted our arrival, so I went straight over to buy two tickets for the grand sum of €8. I tried to explain that we would be eating first, and he shrugged, waved over to where we were to enter, indicated we could start whenever, and promptly disappeared again. So it was that half an hour later we wandered over to a deserted building, and took ourselves for a tour of the place, joining the dots as to which sets, props and costumes belonged to which films. It was a completely bizarre experience, as the real merged with the fake, authentic looking buildings had new, bare wood on the reverse, and we deduced the route in much the same way as one solves a hedge maze. 

It looks real, until you go around the back

We knew that the original set was built for the feature film Defenders of Riga, and worked out that a cross between Vikings and Game of Thrones was responsible for several newer sets, including the inside of a longhouse, and exterior of a village. It turned  out to be a film known in English as The Pagan King, about the efforts made by the people from this region of the Baltics to resist the crusading Brothers of the Sword - they're the ones responsible for most of the castles we've visited. 

Nah, far too pretty

A 13th century Baltic village

Inside the Pagan King's court

We were highly entertained by the chance to explore Cinevilla, but there was another stop planned for today, just a few miles down the road. This was the country residence of the Englishman who became Mayor of Riga in 1901, whose statue we saw in Riga yesterday along with that of his wife, Cecile, and dog (name not given). 

Jaunmoku Castle, really a manor house

George Armitstead built the manor house at Jaunmoku, having commissioned an architect to design something reminiscent of an English country house, which ended up tipping over into something like a cross between a French chateau and a woodcut from a Grimm fairytale. The rather lovely grounds included a lake, rose gardens, flowerbeds and barns and cottages. Unfortunately for Geoge, he inherited his father's title and estate, and had to up sticks after only five years. This left the house to bounce through several owners before ending up the property of the state. It became a sanitorium, army barracks and offices, and inevitably fell into deep decay. When it was first decided to restore it in the 1970s there were seven families living in the ground floor.

Mrs Artmitstead and the mayor

Eventually the building was painstakingly restored, including the William Morris wallpaper in the ground floor reception rooms, and the priceless stove which is a national monument in its own right. There were also some handsome portraits of the Armitsteads and their family tree. The house is owned by the national forestry, and there is a museum dedicated to woodland on the first floor. We were unable to see one room on the ground floor as there was a reception being held there as the house is now used as an events venue. Altogether we more than had our money's worth - €5.50 for the two of us. It's great to be able to visit attractions freely again, without spending half a day's budget. Almost nothing in Norway was less than £20 each to enter. 

A glorious frosty morning in the mire

A woodland cemetery

By now time was creeping on, and we were ready to find a place for the night. We'd made a slow start this morning as there had been a heavy frost overnight, and it took a while for Florence to warm up. I'd gone for a run around the Great Kemeri bog near where we had parked, and after breakfast the four of us made the same circuit over the duckboards, now in warm sun. 

We had then been to investigate the delightful woodland cemetery we had passed on our way into the campground, a jumble of Orthodox graves on terraces between the trees, with small paths and steps leading between them. Each family grave has a small bench or seat for visitors, many now decaying and covered in moss. We couldn't work out how the graves had been dug so close to the trees, which had surely been there longer, but the whole result was very picturesque. 


Tonight there is another cemetery nearby, and several churches, but our main reason for being here is Lake Usma in Western Latvia, at which Florence is pointing her nose. It's a busy resort in summer, but it's been very quiet wherever we have been in the countryside for the past couple of weeks, and once again we have the place to ourselves this evening. 

A scene from The Pagan King, shot at Cinevilla