As promised, a quick visit to the old castle in Bauska! Basically it’s a small uneven field of stones surrounded by red brick walls. Its piece de resistance? The old tower still stands and has been fortified for climbing.
Now back in the day (the ’90s), they used the old ruin for an outdoor nighttime performance of Hamlet, and actors were placed on the crumbling walls, making entrances and exits in dramatic lighting (mostly open fire, what can I say) and apparently the show was really something else. Would love to have seen that, alas – I am left only with my imagination, as today’s many, many safety standards would prohibit even the attempt of something similar (and thank goodness for those standards).
Anyway, here’s the soundtrack, and enjoy the bricks!
A peek back to the ‘new’ castle. Watch out, there might be intruders approaching!
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Weird little stairwell leading to nowhere – castles have a tendency to sink and be covered by layers of time.
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What can I say, I like mysterious little stairwells.
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A view up the old tower – you can see the reinforcements, and yep, we’re going right up.
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I will confess, pigeons kept crossing the patch of sky and I wanted a capture, but was unsuccessful. As it is, we’re approaching the top of the tower, and the battery on my camera is dying.
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A view back down the tower – and no views of the view up top itself. because someone forgot to charge the batteries.
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The back of the castle complex – I am now standing on the edge of the old moat, behind me is the park that now is home to the town’s open-air stage for summer concerts and other fun activities. I sucked the last bit of life out of my camera for this photo.
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Oh, too bad about the batteries, the view must have been stunning! The old castle is marvelous with its odd little stairwells. The stone work is fascinating, and such lovely old stones. I like how in the last photo, there is grass growing on the top of the walls, so glad you were able to get that last one!
Imagine going up or down those tiny stairwells in a big long dress with lots of layers so that you can’t see your feet.
I think my favourite photo is the last one. So much lush green and blue sky plus the textured brick and the undulating fence…perfect.
I think I like the stairwells best, I’ve a soft spot for stairs that now go nowhere, they give rise to so much speculation as to what the original structure was.
I don’t think you would have been wearing big dresses with lots of layers in the days of the old castle, but I bet one of the reasons they really built the new castle was to accomodate the many layered fuller new dresses!
THe inside of the tower is fascinating. Two doorways just gonign nowhere.
Thay squigglyness of the land in the last picture is funny!