Jaunjelgava combines a historic townscape with a riverside promenade that invites you to take a walk. This gives you two distinct priorities to consider when planning your trip: architectural history in a town with buildings from several periods, and time by the Daugava. If you are considering Jaunjelgava as a place to stay, you can ask yourself whether you would rather focus on architecture and remembrance or on a walk along the river.

Townscape and Architectural History

The historic center of Jaunjelgava is a nationally significant urban monument dating from the 17th to 19th centuries. Historic wooden buildings have been preserved mainly on Jelgavas iela and Rīgas iela. This lets you connect the classification of the center with a specific look at wood as a building material.

The town hall offers a glimpse of a later phase of construction: it was built in 1912 and features Art Nouveau forms. This date falls after the period of the historic center, making it possible to distinguish between the different periods of construction.

Churches and Remembrance

The Orthodox Church of the Transfiguration of Christ was built in 1896–1897 from granite stones and red bricks. Numerous icons from the 18th and 19th centuries have been preserved inside. The construction period and the icons thus point to different periods within the church’s history.

The Baptist church was built in 1897 with funds from the congregation and is distinguished by its beautiful wooden interior. The Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Cross is a wooden building with a tower, built in 1902. The construction dates are close together, while the churches also offer different features to compare: the Baptist church’s wooden interior, the wooden structure of the Holy Cross church, and the granite and red bricks of the Orthodox church.

A memorial with a plaque was erected in 2003 in the Jewish cemetery of Jaunjelgava. It commemorates more than 500 Jews from Jaunjelgava who were killed on August 7, 1941. The two dates have different roles: 2003 is the year the memorial was erected, while August 7, 1941, is the date of the killings.

Walks and Getting Around

Jaunjelgava’s Daugava promenade runs along the banks of the Daugava and invites you to take a walk. Unlike the churches, town hall, and historic wooden buildings, it has no focus on a period of construction or building material, but instead offers a walk by the river. During your stay, you can therefore choose between a primarily architectural and historical perspective and time by the water.

The Jaunjelgava Tourist Information Center offers up-to-date information and brochures about tourist attractions in Jaunjelgava and Aizkraukles novads district. Its travel guidance thus covers both the town and the district. If you initially focus on Jaunjelgava, you can concentrate on attractions in the town; if you plan more broadly, the information also covers the district. This lets you tailor the geographical scope of your travel planning to your own plans.

Discover more destinations: Staburadze, Sece.

Go to the main travel overview: Jaunjelgavas Novads.