Duntes muižas kungu māja gadsimtu gaitā
Dunte Manor House over Centuries

Summary/Abstract: Until 1423 Dunte manor (Rurhern, Rurershoff, Rurerhoff) belonged to the Rosen family. Proprietors changed with time but the Treiden family were Dunte landlords during the Polish-Swedish War when Vidzeme was totally demolished, and one can suppose that Dunte manor house was burnt down as well. Its existence in the period of early Mannerism - from the 1560s to the first decade of the 17th cenrury - is confirmed by stove tile fragments found in the former manor house foundations and cellars in autumn 2004. All of them were damaged by fire. One item deserves particular attention. It is a green-glazed tile with a man's profile at its centre. It is likely that this Renaissance period tile had been decorated with some narrative scene. A tile depicting the Allegory of Love from the series of Seven Virtues is from the stove that also belongs to the late Mannerism and early Baroque period. Such a rarely found tile from the Bauska Castle is dated by the second half of the 17th cenrury. The Treidens owned the manor demolished by the war until the Swedish times. From the 1630 Dunte manor belonged to senior lieutenant Ernst Ludwig Glasenapp. In 1677 his heirs sold the manor to Johann von Dunten. "Plan of Lāde, Liepupe, Dunte and other manors" is one of the testimonies of this period, made by the inspector Jonus Backer in 1686. It is the oldest known cartographic material on the Dunte manor. A new manor house was built in 1719 when the Dunten family owned the manor. It was simple and rather archaic. Walls painted in the typical Swedish red tone consisted of impressively massive horizontal beams. In the mid-18th century the Dunte new manor house is related to Karl Friedrich Hieronymus von Munchhausen (1720-1797) - a legendary personality who married Jacobine von Dunten, the daughter of Dunte landlord, in 1744. The Dunten family owned the manor until the Latvian Agrarian Reform. In 1764 restoration works were carried out in the manor house, but in 1794 the building probably obtained Classicist features - a column portico, new decorative rims of window openings, etc. The manor house was repaired again in 1844 and 1860 but no detailed information on the works has survived. It is likely that, as a result of the 1894 restoration, the building acquired the look depicted by the oldest known photograph from the early 20th century, found in the Herder Institute in Marburg, Germany. The ancient manor house, already the third one, is seen in the photogprah that was probably taken in the 1920s-1930s. It shows that the technical condition has deteriorared and it has not been in use. The last photograph of the manor house was taken in the 1960s, main entrance portico in ruins, the roof fallen in the middle and no windows at all. The manor house was pulled down in 1966, restoration started in 2004.

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