Liepājas Street House No. 5

No. 5 Liepājas Street around 1940

No. 5 Liepājas Street in 2015

This photograph, which may have been made around 1940, shows mainly the part of the town that belonged to Aizpute Manor before the 1920 Agrarian Reform.

On the left side - a brewery, Akmens (Stone) Bridge with the beginning of the old Liepāja Road. The Dzirnavu (Mill) Pond can be seen, the thick canopy of trees on its left side hides the former manor house. At the end of the pond the watermill of the former manor can be seen.

Passing the castle, the most often captured view of Aizpute that can be seen in photographs and postcards from various angles - Tebra with a bridge, Dzirnavu (Mill) Pond with a mill and above all the current St. John's Lutheran Church built on the former Curonian castle mound.

On the opposite side of the street, on the left bank of Tebra, you can see the former manor brewery and, on the hill, the former Manor house.

This landscape also shows the building of the current № 5 Liepājas Street as if situated on the peninsula, which is located on the site of the former blacksmith of the manor “by the Liepāja Road”, (am Libausche Wege).

In 1838, the owners of the manor of that time the smithy and a garden situated on the Council’s land mortgaged as a pledge to Moses Bernitz for 1,200 Silver Rubles. With the change of houseowners, the plot of land remained the property of the Council.

In 1877, this property was inherited by the merchant Adolf Bernitz, who in 1883 sold all his Aizpute houses for 14,640 Rubles to the merchant Samuel Samuel, but in 1887 he bought them back for the same amount and asked to be granted full ownership of № 5 Liepājas Street, which the Council rejected. A similar request was rejected for his son Alexander in both 1929 and 1940.

In 1879, Gotthard Fensky, a blacksmith with two helpers, earned his living in the old smithy, but in Bernitz house there was a small items store of Trembe and a grain shop in the yard.

In 1884, there was Adolf Bernitz's imported food and goods store, grain warehouse and warehouse, the workshop of locksmith Karl Reinholds, where he hired two assistants.

In 1914 the estate was inherited by widow of Adolf Bernitz Marianna and son Alexander (Scholem), but in 1916 Marianna Bernitz bought back part of the inheritance from her son.

In 1916 and again in 1924 there was a small items store of Jēkabs Pasters, in 1926 a smithy of Kristaps Jansons, blacksmith. There was also a leather tannery of David Joseph.

In 1929, Alexander Bernitz became the owner by inheritance. In 1934, Alexander Bernitz had following properties in № 5 Liepājas Street:

1) residential building with 11 rooms, 5 kitchens, 1 retail and 1 production room;

2) extension with 6 rooms and 1 production room;

3) stable with 8 auxiliary rooms;

4) stable with 3 auxiliary rooms;

5) production building with 3 production and 2 auxiliary premises;

6) barn with 4 auxiliary rooms.

Today it is a municipal residential house.

BACK TO START OF THE STREET