If buildings could tell their own stories, the Vanadziņa House at 15 Cēsis Rīgas iela would certainly be one of the greatest storytellers, with more than three hundred years of history.
This place has always been special – from an undeveloped plot of land with well-preserved walls of an old building to a magnificent structure that has become one of Cēsis’ architectural gems.
In 1693 this plot of land belonged to Klaus Paulson, who mortgaged it to Major Lode. However, the real history of the building dates back to 1788, when the property was purchased by the Town Lord of Cesis, Johann Gottlieb Fritsch. Mr Fritsch was an ambitious thinker – in 1798 he decided to build a new house, probably demolishing the previous building. This construction process is even evidenced by a dispute recorded in the minutes of the town hall court between the master carpenter Johann Schmidt and the works manager Johann Michelson over an unpaid sum of 50 dalers – it seems that disputes over construction are as old as construction itself!
After Fritz’s death in 1822, the estate was inherited by his widow Margaretha Elisabeth, who sold it to Dr Georg von Meijer for 2000 silver roubles. Meijer was a remarkable personality – he founded a cold-water healing institution on the grounds of the Cesis Castle and lived an impressively long life of 90 years and 5 months, a truly rare achievement in the 19th century. Does this testify to the effectiveness of his own healing methods? Perhaps!
From 1880 the estate was taken over by Heinrich Meijer – Georg’s son, an educated man who held various positions in Cesis and the district. The house he owned was one of the few in Cēsis without debts – a careful landlord who even specified in his will that the funeral should be held “without any fuss or pomp”.
In 1923, the house became the property of the doctor Kārlis Vanadziņš – to whom the historical name is also due. He bought the property from the pastor Ernest Martins Brucers, who inherited it from his brother Kārlis. The purchase was concluded for 250 000 Latvian roubles or 5 000 lats – a considerable sum in the economic conditions of the time. Vanadziņš was not only a doctor, but also the mayor of Cesis from 1922 to 1933 and a holder of the Order of the Three Stars.
In order to carry out the necessary renovations, Vanadziņš borrowed 4000 lats from the Latvian Mortgage Bank for 12 years, mortgaging his property. Interestingly, he was able to repay the loan in full by February 1930. In this house he set up his private practice, as well as the X-ray and physiotherapy offices of the town of Cesis. A few years later, he borrowed another LVL 10 000 from Eduard Karl Harald Schubert, probably to make further improvements to the building.
The building went through various twists and turns in its history – it was nationalised in 1940, but ownership was restored in May 1943. At the end of World War II, Kārlis Vanadziņš emigrated to Sweden, but for a long time the people of Cēsis still called the building “Vanadziņš’ House”. After the war, it housed the Cēsis Health Department.
After Latvia regained its independence, the building changed hands several times and was not properly managed as a result of unsuccessful privatisation. Unfortunately, the building had to be demolished, leaving only a half-collapsed foundation and, as a symbol of its former glory, a set of steps leading down to Riga Street.
But the story does not end with sadness – in 2016, three entrepreneurs decided to renovate the building into a restaurant and hotel. But that’s another story – the story of the rebirth of Vanadzinis House.
The materials used for the description are:
Dace Cepurīte, Mg. hist., Research “Cēsnieks un jego nams”
Collections of the Cesis Castle Museum and the Central Library
