Park Dzeguzhkalns (Dziesmusvetku parks) description and photos - Latvia: Riga (Topic)

Dziesmusvetku parks description and photo - Latvia: Riga. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photographs and a map showing the nearest significant objects. The name in English is Dziesmusvetku parks.

Photo and description

Dzeguzhkalns Park is located in the capital city of Latvia, at the highest point of Riga - Kukushkina Gora (28 meters above sea level). The park is located almost 3 km from the city center. Kukushkina Gora is located in the Riga Ilguciems microdistrict.The length of the hill is about 1 km, and the width reaches 300 meters, the entire territory of this dune, formed about 10 thousand years ago, is occupied by a park.

In 1547, on the top of the hill lived Martins Dzeguze, by the way, the name Dzeguzhkalns originated from him. In the middle of the 18th century, this place became popular with sectarians. Around the same time, the house disappeared, and a cemetery appeared in its place. At first, soldiers who died in a nearby hospital were buried on it. It is assumed that ordinary people began to be buried here after the cholera epidemic that atrocities in 1831. There was no one to look after such a mass grave.

In 1845, the magistrate appointed a watchman to this place, whose duties included keeping track of the dead. When the parish of the Church of St. Martin was formed here, the responsibility for registering the buried in the cemetery passed to him. In 1865, a house was built for the needs of the shelter, and five years later a chapel appeared.

In 1906, the city duma received a request to close the cemetery, since it was full. It would be much more expedient to expand the park, which has already begun to take shape in the neighborhood. A year later, the request was fulfilled.

The fact that there was not a single garden in the district was noticed back in 1893. At that time, workers from nearby factories donated 430 rubles for the creation of the park, the rest was given by the city. Project implementation, developed by Georg Kufaldt, began in 1900 and lasted 7 years. In order to preserve soil moisture, the soil was taken from Spilva meadows and peat was not spared. A small coffee pavilion appeared at the top of the mountain, and a stage was erected at the foot, on which a military orchestra performed. It was getting cozy here, many people came here to admire the view from the mountain.

A couple of legends are associated with Dzeguzhkalns Park. According to one of them, in the Middle Ages, an underground passage led from the Old Riga to Kukushkina Gora. Another legend is even older and tells of the rich knight Raup. Once he died in an unequal battle and turned into a mountain, and his beloved into a cuckoo. Her pain and suffering were inconsolable, and she kept flying and crowing over the dune. Therefore, the place was named Dzeguzhkalns - Kukushkina Gora. A magnificent view of Riga opens from here.

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Topic: Park Dzeguzhkalns (Dziesmusvetku parks) description and photos - Latvia: Riga.