Ungurmuiža Restaurant
Baroque-style wooden manor house complex. Gorgeous interiors. Restaurant in an old school building. Museum. Exhibitions and concerts. Great oak tree park. Hotel. Bicycles and SUP boards in summer, skates in winter. Premises for rent.
Unguri Manor is an ensemble of wooden buildings surrounded by bushy oaks, located in the Gauja National Park. In the 18th century, Baron von Campenhausen built it as a family home. Nowadays, there are no similar baroque-style manor houses in Latvia with such gorgeous wall paintings. During Livonian and Hanseatic League times, manor pubs played an important role as social and economic entities. Nowadays, a museum, a hotel and a restaurant inside the Manor’s premises provides the beautiful, renovated buildings with new content and meaning, attracting tourists and enriching the life of the local community.
There is written evidence of the history of Unguri Manor in the Herder-Institut Marburg (Germany). Back then beer was a popular drink in the pub, or, if something finer was in mind, there was honey beer, vodka, people smoked tobacco, and only in the second half of the year cheese snacks knapsieriņi were eaten. At that time 10 to 20% of the annual profit of the Manor came from the pub.
Nowadays the main values of the restaurant are locally grown produce, which is cooked slowly and thoroughly depending on the season. There are dishes whose recipes have been developed, inspired by the hostess of the Manor Helēna Juliāne from records that have been preserved since 1740. For example, slow stewed veal, served with lingonberries, celery, carrots and pearls. The family and friends of Baron von Campenhausen would have certainly loved blood sausage with apple and cranberry jam, beef tongue with horseradish and fresh cheese cream, trout with greens. Also soups from vegetables, lamb and chicken broth. Or main courses with duck breast fried in linden blossoms, game marinated in the local “Raiskumietis” beer with mushrooms, or catfish steak with pumpkin puree and quince sauce. The desserts also combine the old with the new, where rye, famous in Livonia, meets lingonberries, whipped cottage cheese and gingerbread crumbs. There is also a home-made quince ice cream. It would be difficult to compare the rich drinks menu with the older times, but the most popular ones are definitely local beer from “Raiskumietis” and “Valmiermuiža”.
Read more about accommodation, catering and premises rental services on the Manor’s website.
Photos
