The Rose of Turaida

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There was a young maiden in Turaida which is part of the town of Sigulda in the Vidzeme region o f Latvia who in 1620 took her own life rather than to live in shame. Her name was Maija (1601-1620). The first person to ever write about this incident was court assessor Magnus fon Wolffeldt in 1844 and he in turn inspired poet Adelbert Cammerer to write a romantic, historic poem “Die Jungfrau von Treiden” (Turaidas maiden). Later on Latvian composer Emils Melngailis wrote a ballet “Maija (Turaidas Roze”) and famous Latvian poet and writer Rainis wrote a play about Maija called “Mila Stipraka Par Navi” (“Love is Stronger than Death”) in 1927. Who was she and what happened? This is the story about the tragedy that happened to Maija. It was the time of the Polish-Swedish War (1600 – 1629) and the Swedish army had occupied Turaida Castle. It was spring 1601 and the castle’s scribe Greif discovered that among those who had fallen during the battle there was a baby girl who was only a few weeks old. Greif brought the baby home and decided to raise her. Since it was the month of May and in Latvian it is written Maijs he named the little girl Maija (Maya). As the girl grew she became quite a beauty and because of her loveliness was called the Rose of Turaida. Her suitor lived on the opposite bank of the Gauja at Sigulda Castle. He was a gardener called Viktors Heils. In the evenings the two young lovers met at Gutmana ala or Gutmans Cave (which today is a tourist attraction in Sigulda). At that time there were two deserters of the Polish army who had found work at Turaida Castle. They were Jakubovskis and Skudrics and both of them were attracted to Maija and wanted to marry her but the girl refused them. This made Jakubovskis so angry that he decided to get Maija at all cost and sent Skudrics as if on assignment from Viktor to ask Maija to come to the usual meeting place but at a different time. Maija took her little sister Hermine with her and while she went to the cave Hermine went to pick flowers in the meadow. When Maija arrived at the cave and found Jakubovskis there she knew that it was a trap and that he would attack her. There and then she decided that it was better to die than to live in shame. In those days people believed in magic and spells. Maija was wearing a red silk kerchief around her neck which had been a gift from Viktor. On the kerchief were embroidered the words “Love is Stronger than Death”. She told Jakubovskis that the kerchief had magical powers and that the wearer would be protected from the strike of a sword and challenged him to try it out. At first Jakubovskis wasn’t sure what to do but then struck the girl with his sword and she fell at his feet. He was horrified and scared about what had happened and ran into the woods and hung himself. The first one to arrive at the cave was Hermine and she got such a fright that she ran off to the next town of Krimulda. In the evening Viktor found Maija in the cave murdered and in horror he collapsed by her side. The small axe he had been holding fell into a pool of blood. When they found Viktor’s axe soaked in blood they arrested Viktor. The trial took place at Turaida Castle and the court decided that Viktor had killed Maija and sentenced him to death. However there was a witness. Skudrics had followed Jakubovskis and had seen everything that had taken place there. He told the court what had actually happened, Viktor was freed and Maija was buried in the cemetery by Turaida Church. Viktor hurting for his lost love went back to Germany taking a handful of dirt from Maija’s grave with him. Her resting place in Turaida is now visited by tourists.