Smiltene cover

The cover's background shows a traditional weave pattern; inside are an illustration of a full folk costume and various details: jacket and skirt, brooches and blouse, collar and cuff embroidery. The flip side provides brief overviews in French, English, Russian, and Latvian.

Smiltene

Smiltene district in Latvia

Smiltene refers both to a district and town in Latvia located in northern Latvia. The village, first known as Smiltestele, first appears in historical documents in 1427. The town was destroyed in Ivan the Terrible's relatively short-lived conquest of Vidzeme. It later found itself under Polish-Lithuanian then Swedish rule. Russian destroyed the town, again, in the Great Northern War.

Town of Smiltene

Under Russia, Catherine the Great granted Smiltene manor to Governor-General of Rīga Count Georg Graf Braun. The manor changed owners a number of times, eventually purchased by the Lieven family in 1893.

Manor properties were broken into homesteads under land reform after Latvia gained its independence. Smiltene was granted town rights in 1920 and prospered as a local center of agriculture and manufacturing. Three quarters of the town was again destroyed in WWII.

Today, Smiltene offers a number of sights for the visitor: the Lutheran church, Roman Catholic parish house, and Orthodox chuch; a memorial stone to Krišjānis Barons commemorating his visit to Smiltene in 1859, the old Lieven manor complex, ruins of the Livonian Order's castle, Vidusezers Lake, and more—even a meteor crater.

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