Grobiņa Castle

Grobiņa Castle is a medieval castle located in the town of Grobiņa, in South Kurzeme Municipality in the Courland region of Latvia. The ancient Curonian castle hill (Skābāržu kalns) is located only 100 m from the castle. It is supposed to be the famous Seeburg, which is mentioned in Scandinavian sources as early as the 9th century.

The Livonian Order erected the castle in 1253 to protect the roads from Livonia to Prussia. It was a square type building and was a three storey high living block in the southern aisle. It also had a gate tower in the middle of the western wall. The castle was built of bricks and crude stone. Once it had arched ceilings. It was a residence for the local viceroy of the Livonian Order from 1399 to 1590. From 1590 to 1609 it was ruled by Prussia. As support base in south Courland it was many times rebuilt and fortified.

In the times of the Duchy of Courland, the castle was destroyed and rebuilt many times. In the sixteenth and seventeenth century sand walls were erected around the castle. They had a bastion in each of the four corners and a stockade. Later the castle was used as a residence for local German landlords. The castle was destroyed in the eighteenth century.

Many famous people have visited the castle, for example: Duke Jacob Kettler of Courland, The King of Sweden, Carl XII and the King of Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm III.

The castle of the original order was built in the 13th century. The time and place of the construction of this castle are not clearly known, but several sources mention the period around 1245-1251 year, when under the leadership of the Master of the Order Dietrich von Grüningen, several castles were built in Kurzeme, including in Kuldiga Castle (Castle Goldingen) and Embūte Castle (Castle Amboten). The castle was made of wood.

In 1328, the Livonian Order gave the Mēmele area to the State of the Teutonic Order. Probably soon after, Grobiņa Castle was rebuilt on the right bank of the river on a land elevation about 200 meters from castle mound (Skābāržkalns), and this stone castle was further ruled by the Grobiņa bailiff, who was under the command of Kuldīga. The castle was located on the ancient Prussian road, in the middle between Mēmele and Kuldīga, and was thus an important fortress in the region.

Text adapted from “Grobiņa Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Grobiņa Castle ranks #3,941 of 8,133 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #22 of the 45 mapped in Latvia. Founded 1253, it is older than 69% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 860 atlas entries founded in the 13th century. See how Latvia compares in the castle statistics.

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