Liezēre Lutheran Church
The church in Liezere is extremely ancient. It turns out that it was rebuilt more than ten years ago.
The place is accessible from the outside to a wide range of visitors.
It is not known when the first Liezere church was built, where it was located and what it looked like. In 1643, it was named as new in the church supervision protocol, but it was probably destroyed, because in 1668 it was decided to build another church, no longer by the lake, but on a hill. In 1727, only its ruins remained. On December 16, 1737, another building was consecrated, which served until 1763, when the next one was consecrated. These were all wooden buildings.
In 1786, they decided to build a stone church. Masonry work was entrusted to Breitenstein, woodwork to Zemler, blacksmithing to Brunner and painting to the Hinši brothers. In 1797, the church was considered ready, which was confirmed by the number of the year on the flag. The church was consecrated the following year.
The building was renovated several times: In 1810, parts of the masonry were repaired,
in 1848, the old, rotten tower was repaired and the outer walls were painted,
in 1898, a new gypsum board and a tower cross were installed. Initially, the exterior of the church was white, but this time it was repainted light grey with white corners. The tower remained green as before, the interior, the organ, the altar, the pulpit, and the pews were white, but the altar pillars and the organ prospect were gilded. There was a plan to expand the church by adding 2 rooms behind the altar and moving the pulpit to another place.
The church was damaged in the First World War but was immediately restored. During the short Soviet period, the roof was damaged, the archive was partially lost. In the 1930s, the church had 650 seats and a new tin roof was put on it. On September 27, 1944, when the German troops were retreating, the church was blown up. The ruins as a result of World War II were visible until 1991. With the support of the Latvian congregation of Wilmington (USA) and former Liezerian brothers Zuik (USA, Germany), the restoration works of the church were started in 1990. In 1991 the old foundations were strengthened and the symbolic foundation stone was laid. The church is being renovated according to the project of the architect Māris Jostiņš. The project was developed based on the old photos, so that the church would regain its previous appearance.
The place can be viewed from the outside at any time of the year.
Working time
The church is always accessible from the outside.
Open to visitors during the liturgy on the 1st Sunday of every month at 9am.