Lazdona Manor Castle
It is one of the most impressive architectural pearls in the Vidzeme Highlands, located in the very center of Lazdona. The building is slowly crumbling before everyone’s eyes.
From the outside, the place is accessible to a large number of visitors.
"The Lazdona manor has existed at least since the 16th century. In the 17th century, its owners were the Klebek family, but in the 19th century, the owners were the Budenbrok family.
In 1904, the manor was bought by Teodor Johan (Jānis) Schmidt, whose father Johan Schmidt was a teacher in Piebalga. T. Schmidt had studied at Terbata University and the Institute of Road Engineers in St. Petersburg. He was a railway engineer in South Russia (based in Kharkiv) and married there. He was a Russian official with a rank corresponding to the title of a nobleman - a privy councilor, although he was born Latvian. Schmidt visited Lazdona very rarely.
After the establishment of the Republic of Latvia, the Schmidt family came to their father's homeland. Teodor himself still worked in the Ministry of Transport. He died while inspecting the construction of the Staicele line railway. During the agrarian reform, he was left with the inalienable part of the manor - 72.1 hectares. The rest of the land and some six buildings were divided for new farms, and a dairy of the dairy farmers' association was set up in the barn. The remaining property was managed by Teodor Schmidt's son Mihails, who left Lazdona during the World War II. He did not live in the lord's house or palace and rented it out. He stayed in the white, now abandoned two-story building behind the castle.
Latvian army artillerymen were temporarily stationed in the castle in the autumn of 1939, when after the placement of units of the USSR Red Army in Courland, the Latvian army was looking for new quarters (they were also thinking about the possible formation of defense lines inside the territory of Latvia). There was officer E. Bērziņš, the father of cartoonist Gunārs Bērziņš, among them.
After World War II, a fur-breeding farm was established in Lazdona. The office of the farm, some other administrative institutions, and apartments were also located in the palace. In the first half of the nineties, the property was recovered by the descendants of the former owners. Then the owners changed. At first the buyers had big plans for use, which have now been interrupted and the building remained unused.
In 2015, the film "Pelnu sanatorija" directed by Dāvis Sīmanis was shot here. The script of this film is related to real past events in this manor. At the beginning of October 1914, a soldiers' infirmary was actually opened in the house of the lords of the Lazdona manor. The owner Teodor Schmidt allocated five rooms for it. There were 20 treatment beds planned, six of which were maintained by the owner of the building at his own expense, the rest were paid for mostly by the Orthodox congregation of Lazdona. The infirmary was congregated on October 12, 1914, when the first wounded person had been staying there for a week." zudusilatvija.lv
In 1862, the manor was bought by an education employee Karls (fon) Stankievics from St. Petersburg (he worked in the Gatchina orphanage-institute). He organized the construction of the manor's new residential building in the first half of the 1870s. His son was a doctor. In 1890, the manor was rented by a representative of the Līvens family, and from 1894 it was rented by Edgars von Strandmans.
The church can be viewed from the outside at any time of the year.
Working time
Outside space is always available.