Powder Tower (Riga)

For the first time in a chronicle source, the tower was mentioned in 1330 in connection with the conquest of the city by the troops of the Livonian Order . Specially for the master Eberhardt von Monheim , a hole was made in the fortress wall with a cannon shot through which the overlord pompously entered the newly conquered Riga. The members of the Order Council decided to improve the fortification system of the city, and in the place where the historically significant Great Sandy Road was part of the city center, a tower was erected, named after the features of the surrounding relief - Sandy. There is an assumption that the tower appeared before the order of the conquest, at the end of the XIII century. The name of the tower was also connected with the fact that the long sand dunes framed the delta of the Riga River . According to them, the trade route got its name, and later - the tower and the bastion . Initially, it had a horseshoe-shaped, “open” shape, but already in the middle of the XIV century it was rebuilt and acquired a cylindrical shape, which it has preserved to this day. In the medieval period, the tower guarded the city from the north, was a strategically important defense point.

Initially, in the early period of the city’s history, the Sand Tower limited the so-called Russian Compound ( German: Russische Dorf ), the territory of which stretched to the place where the Sejm of Latvia is now located. The neighboring tower was called Russian - in the area where Russian artisans lived and the Pskov and Polotsk merchants stopped. In total, 28 towers guarded the medieval city, at different times they acquired different names. As for the Sand Tower, already during the next perestroika, which took place on the instructions of the master of the Livonian Order, it was rebuilt into a six-story building, and between the fifth and sixth floors, the masters of fortification had a special “pantry for catching cores”. This ingenious room consisted of cross-arranged oak and pine logs that “captured” the projectiles flying from above and held them in the openings between the logs.

Despite these fortification tricks, the tower could not be saved from destruction during the fighting of the Swedish-Polish war in 1621. However, in Swedish times, a plan was adopted to reorganize the city fortification system, and the tower was rebuilt. Perhaps it was from this time that she began to be called Porokhova. A widespread version of the origin of the new name, according to which the tower in relatively peacetime was adapted for storing gunpowder. However, this version does not seem quite logical: because if a shell hit the tower in which the stockpiles of gunpowder are concentrated, this would have the most sad consequences for the whole city. Moreover, the shells attacked it many times: the first time this happened in 1656 during the siege of the city by the troops of the Russian Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich during the Russian-Swedish war - then 9 cores landed in the tower. The next “batch” of cores was received by the Powder Tower in 1709, when the siege of the city with the army of Boris Petrovich Sheremetev , the military commander of the Russian conqueror Peter the Great , who also took an active part in the siege of Riga, began. The urban legend says that the nuclei of the Powder Tower were fired by the Russian autocrat himself, who, first of all, personally avenged the "hated" Swedish city, which at one time gave him an inhospitable welcome (the time of Governor E. Dahlberg ), and -second, gave an official signal to the beginning of the siege of the city. As a result, Riga was taken, and three cores on the one hand, as well as nine cores on the other, remained in the walls of the tower to this day.

Russian Empire

During the time of the Russian Empire, the tower was abandoned. There were no wars, and by the middle of the XIX century the question arose of dismantling the system of urban fortifications, which territorially constrained the development of the city. By order of the Governor-General of the Baltic Region A. A. Suvorov, in 1856 a large-scale plan for the reconstruction of Riga was adopted. It was assumed that all the elements of the fortress wall were to be torn down. An exception was made for the Powder Tower to leave this fortification pattern for history. As a result, the tower was empty for about 30 years before the question of its status received a new solution.

In 1892, the space of the tower was transferred to the student corporation Rubonia , whose members professed the ideas of aggressive nationalism. The then Riga mayor Ludwig Kerkovius went to meet the requests of students of the Riga Polytechnic , and those, in turn, pledged to make major repairs of the structure at their own expense, which was done. Part of the funds spent on repairs was earned by students from the sale of a large amount of pigeon droppings that had accumulated in the tower during its inaction, to the owners of the surrounding garden plots.

After the repair, the tower began to be used in a new way. The “pantry for catching cores” has turned into a fencing room. Also in the tower were several dance halls and a beer hall.

Independent Latvia

The Powder Tower served as a student entertainment center until 1916. Students who did not want to leave their homes even with the outbreak of World War I were asked to vacate the tower. A museum of the Latvian Rifle Regiments ( Latvian Riflemen ) opens in the tower, which was later replaced by the Military Museum. According to other sources, the Military Museum did not immediately settle in the tower, but at first it was reoriented for the needs of the district police department. This continued until 1938, when the self-proclaimed president of Latvia, Ulmanis, decided not to transform the building of the police department into a city military museum. Restoration work lasted about 2 years, as a result of which the tower acquired its modern appearance. Near the Powder Tower was built the building of the Military Museum, designed by architect Galindom in the neoclassical style.

Soviet period

With the establishment of Soviet power, the tower was again found another use: the Nakhimov Naval School was opened in it. In 1957, the next museum was located in the tower, this time - the Museum of the October Revolution, the main ideological museum of the republic.

After Restoring Independence

After independence in 1991, the Soviet Museum was replaced by the Military Museum of Latvia , whose exposition is housed in the Galindoma building and partially in the Powder Tower building.

According to unofficial information, under the Powder Tower building there are underground military bunkers, equipped even before the Second World War and so far classified.

• Riga city fortifications

• A.K. Krumin . “Treasures of the architecture of the peoples of the USSR. Riga". Publishing House of the Academy of Architecture of the USSR. - Moscow, 1947.
• A.V. Tsauna Riga near Riga. Riga, Zinatne, 1989. ISBN 5-7966-0015-X
• Riga: Encyclopedia = Enciklopēdija "Riga" / Ch. ed. P.P. Eran. - 1st ed .. - Riga: Main Edition of Encyclopedias, 1989. - P. 566. - 880 p. - 60,000 copies. - ISBN 5-89960-002-0 .

• The story of the Powder Tower on citariga.lv