Cēsis

Cēsis lies above the valley of the Gauja in northern Vidzeme, Latvia, where ridges and wooded slopes give the town a defensible setting. The earliest known settlement stood on Riekstu Hill and was occupied by Vends in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. After the Livonian Brothers of the Sword took control in 1207, they began a stone castle on the neighboring plateau. The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia records the castle by 1218, while events in the area from 1206 mark the conventional beginning of the town's written history.

Cēsis developed around that stronghold and became a planned urban community. It was identified as a town in 1323, gained a council and burgomasters, and joined the Hanseatic League in the early fifteenth century. The castle served as a major center of the Livonian Order and, after the order's Riga castle was destroyed in 1484, became the residence of its masters. The town's medieval street plan, St. John's Church and fragments of fortification preserve this period.

The Livonian War brought heavy damage, including the siege of 1577, after which the castle lost its former political importance. Cēsis later passed through Polish-Lithuanian, Swedish and Russian rule.