Neumünde fortress

Daugavgrīva Castle
Near Riga in Latvia
Daugavgrīva Castle in 1577.
Daugavgrīva castle Location of Daugavgrīva castle ruins
Coordinates	57°03′17″N 24°05′34″E / 57.05480°N 24.09272°E / 57.05480; 24.09272
Type	Castle
Site information
Open to the public	yes
Condition	ruins
Site history
Built	1305
Built by	Livonian Branch of the Teutonic Knights
Materials	dolostone
Demolished	by 1653

Daugavgrīva Castle (German: Dünamünde; Polish: Dynemunt; Russian: Усть-Двинск or Ust`-Dvinsk) is a former monastery converted into a castle, located at Vecdaugava oxbow on right bank of Daugava, in the northern part of Riga city, Latvia. Nowadays here are seen only earthen ramparts.

The first settlement, Daugavgrīva Abbey, was established on the right bank of the Daugava river, 13 miles from Bishop Albert of Riga's residence in Riga, by Cistercian monks from Pforta in 1205. Theoderich von Treyden was an early abbot, while during the 1210s Count Bernhard II of Lippe was its abbot. During a raid of tribal Curonians in 1228, the monastery and its tombs were destroyed, although the monks rebuilt the abbey after fighting died down. They also had to endure abuse by the undisciplined crusaders of the Livonian Order. Those knights were defeated at the Battle of Saule, however, and their remnants were incorporated into the Teutonic Knights in 1237. Until 1452 the territory of Siggelkow in Mecklenburg was owned by the monastery. In 1305, the local abbot sold the monastery to the Livonian Branch of the Teutonic Knights, who began construction of the fortress of Dünamünde.