Lake Burtnieki with churches and estate centres

Vidzeme

Listen to the landscape

The Lutheran Church, ancient graveyards with unusual chapels and gates, and the Rectory – such are the cultural heritage monuments surrounding fabled Lake Burtnieki. The Burtnieku estate was established near the lake, next to the 13th-century Livonian Order Castle. The estate parkland consists of beautiful pathways, fountains and imported tree species – Pennsylvanian ash, European larch, Siberian pine, Tatarian maple, Paper birch. The Burtnieku Lutheran Church, an example of late Gothic and Baroque architecture, towers over the southeast lakeshore. It was built between 1283 and 1287 and dedicated to Holy Mary.

Lake Burtnieki is the fourth largest lake in Latvia and the only one whose waves have exposed rocky outcrops.
There are many outstanding cultural monuments in the Burtnieki District – the Ēvele Church, the Ēvele estate parkland with its barn, the Valmiermuiža Palace Complex, Rencēnmuižas Palace Complex.
One of the oldest Stone Age settlements in Latvia –Zvejnieki (fishermen) – is located on the north-eastern shore of the lake.