Jewish Bridge and Fountain Hill

Jewish Bridge around 1900

Jewish Bridge in 2014

Jewish Bridge around 1900

Jewish Bridge in 2014

The Jewish Bridge in the mid-1920s

Jewish Bridge in 2016

The Jewish Bridge in the late 1920s

Jewish Bridge in 2014

In order to get a better look at the buildings described above, we have to continue the road along Brīvības (Freedom) Street to the place where behind the no more existent Oša House on № 25 Brīvības Street there was also the no more existent Kalna (Hill) Street, along which we have to go down to Tebra, where is the Jewish Bridge, which got its name because it was near the Synagogue.

Adolphi, the Mayor of Aizpute, proposed to build a pedestrian bridge in this place, indicating in a letter to the manager of Aizpute Castle Manor on May 1, 1880 as a suitable place - “down of the fire station (Spritzenhaus) from the Garden of Haase across to the embankment on the other bank, which is at the same time is the road to the forest”. And at the meeting of the Aizpute Magistrate on July 31, 1880, the deputy von Sacken suggested to the Mayor Adolphi to express gratitude from the town administration to the General Lilienfeld for the bridge.

This wooden pedestrian bridge was as unstable and unpredictable as the ice floating in Tebra in the spring. On March 9, 1902, an invoice of 45.15 Rubles was submitted to the Council for the repair of the bridge, which lasted 6 days and employed 8 workers from 3 to 6 days. On April 8, 1908, the Council paid 60.50 Rubles for the repair of the Synagogue Bridge. From 1910 to 1914 annual amount had to be paid.

On December 6, 1922, the Town Council decided to pay 1,500 Rubles for spring ice cutting at the bridge piles under the Jewish Church to Andrejs Dinis, a bath entrepreneur, until the spring, “who must constantly take care that the bridge would not be raised, otherwise he has to fix it with his own funds”.

On January 13, 1928, a new, stable bridge project was developed by the Construction Technician Fr. Griģis, and on February 9, the Town Council decided to immediately start the construction of the “Tebra River Bridge” in public order after a developed project.

The July 6, 1928 issue of the Aizpute newspaper "Lejas - Kurzemes Ziņas" (Lower Kurzeme News) reads that "the most grandiose last work of the Town Council is to build a so-called "silk" bridge over the river with funds from the state for the unemployed in the amount of 4,000 Lats. Due to the promenade to Misiņkalns (Brass Hill), the Town Council had decided to build this bridge last winter to have a place to employ the town's many unemployed. .. Finally now .. the bridge has thorough and thick supports, as well as the embankment is raised with gravel.”

In the August 10 issue of the same newspaper, reflecting the visit of the Minister of Finance Roberts Liepiņš to Aizpute, has written that "in Aizpute he wanted to see the new bridge over the river Tebra ...". It seems that the Minister might have thought that this was a bridge for traffic.

This bridge stood until the post-war years. Only in the mid-1930s, when Strūlaku (Fountain) Hill was built, embankments were built on both banks of the Tebra for easier access to the bridge, in 1928 the Council lacked funds for it. Thus, the number of bridge steps was reduced, the railing for stairs were erected as well as supplementing the bridge railings.

Since then, the documents of the Town Council refer to the Fountain Bridge, but for Aizpute locals it was and still remained as the Jewish Bridge.

Jewish Bridge and Fountain Hill around 1900

Jewish Bridge and Fountain Hill in 2016

Jewish Bridge and Fountain Hill in late 1930s

Jewish Bridge and Fountain Hill in 2014

When crossing the bridge, we are at the foot of the Strūlaku (Fountain) Hill. There is no news when the fountains were first built here. In any case, they have been here since the beginning of the 20th century. Unfortunately, after the First World War, they no longer worked. They were restored in the second half of the 1930s.

As the former gymnasium drawing teacher Jānis Audriņš writes: "About ½ km from the castle mound there was a pedestrian bridge. On both sides of the entrance a fountain was installed on the steep bank of the two-source springs with a corresponding tank. I made drawings for the whole construction. Although it was not possible to implement everything as planned, this place was one of the most splendid in the town."

Engraving by Wilhelm Siegfried Stavenhagen

Before concluding our walk, by returning along the Jewish house of prayer into the former town Market Place, let's take a look at the view from the same bank of the Tebra what Wilhelm Siegfried Stavenhagen (1814-1881) saw in the middle of the 19th century.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR COMPANY AND SEE YOU IN REAL AIZPUTE!

BACK TO START OF THE STREET