In the end of XIII century the Alt-Dunaburg castle was built by Livonian Order. It was located on the right bank of the Daugava river, 19 km from Daugavpils city. The main purpose of castle construction was a desire to protect Livonia eastern border from the raids of the Lithuanian and Russian troops.
Alt-Dunaburg represents untypical fortification construction. On both sides it is surrounded by creeks. They are forming a hill in the middle, on which castle was placed. Because of this, building was extended in length and rather narrow.
Enter in castle started by artifical ditch. From the right side it was protected by low height circular tower. Then followed a small courtyard and then a main yard, surrounded by one side with gallery-wall and from another with residential complex. It consisted of a utility room, dining room, main hall, church, monks apartments. Wall and complex are connected together with hight quadratic tower. Exit from castle are fenced with small wall and goes straight to the river bank where the pier was located.
This reconstruction represents appearance of Alt-Dunaburg castle in the XIII century. All work was done using historic maps, schematics, paintings. During work process several field visits were made, hundreads of photo were taken. An important discovery was made - ground on the hill was full of red colored bricks. Also, in the banks of creeks rounded stones were found. This proves that the appearance of castle should looks like on 3D renders.
Important note: this work is a part of large historic project about Daugavpils city history.
See more at Digital History Daugavpils