Rural heritage, church history and moorland landscape give Ondrupine a variety of distinct highlights. You can decide how much emphasis to place on culture, cuisine and nature according to your interests, and choose which experiences will shape your trip.
Rural Heritage and Craftsmanship
At the “Andrupene lauku sēta” Museum, visitors can explore a hundred-year-old farmhouse, a barn, a traditional sauna, and a range of tools and household items. The educational programme includes four museum education programmes. The threshing floor is also part of the complex and is used as a conference room. The exhibits range from historical everyday objects to a building with a present-day function.
Pottery workshops are held at the farmstead. Visitors can watch the blacksmith at work in the forge. The folklore group “Sovvaļnīki” invites visitors to sing cheerful songs and dance together. These activities offer different highlights: you can take an interest in learning about traditional crafts, or focus instead on music and joining in. The ways to take part also differ: at the forge, you can watch the process, while the folklore group invites you to sing and dance together. The pottery workshops complement these two activities with their own craft focus, so watching, making things by hand and taking part together are three distinct types of experience.
Dishes from the Culinary Heritage
If you would also like to discover Latgale’s cuisine, you can enjoy dishes from the culinary heritage at the museum by prior arrangement. These include kuģeli, guļbešņīkus, pancakes with cymus, asuškas, cheese, butter, herbal tea and šmakovka. Prior arrangement is important for planning. Andrupene bread and butter are additional specialities offered at the farmstead; these must also be booked in advance.
Church History and Moorland Landscape
The history of Andrupene’s Roman Catholic church dates back at least to the 18th century. The present-day brick church was built in 1849–1850. This distinguishes the church’s longer history from the construction period of the current building.
The Andrupene purva taka is located in Rāzna National Park. Along the trail, you can find sphagnum mosses, cranberries, heather, marsh rosemary and round-leaved sundew. A raised bog, or peat moss bog, has formed in a depression in the terrain in the area of the trail. Visitors interested in nature will find specific ways to explore the moorland landscape and its plant life; the trail is also located within a larger protected area.
When planning your trip, it helps not to treat these different highlights as one fixed programme. The museum combines visits with educational activities and crafts; the culinary experience requires prior arrangement. The church and the moorland trail offer other themes for your stay. Choose according to whether you would like to focus more on rural culture, regional dishes, history or nature.
Discover more destinations: Dagda, Andzeļi, Ezernieki.
View the broader travel overview: Dagdas Novads.
