Ungurmuiža

A once-secret Soviet bunker about 9 m underground, beneath the rehabilitation centre at Līgatne. The tour takes in a diesel power station, air-purification equipment and a communications centre; the café serves a 1980s-style meal, and there’s an “Object X” spy game. Check tour times in advance.

One of the mightiest castles of the Livonian Order, begun around 1213 by the Brothers of the Sword and from 1481 the permanent residence of the Livonian masters. A castle servant leads visitors with lanterns through the Western Tower and the master’s room with its 16th-century star vault; in summer there is a castle garden, craft workshops and multimedia exhibitions in the towers. May–September daily 10–18.

A fortified Latgalian settlement on an island in Lake Āraiši, lived in during the 9th and 10th centuries and partly reconstructed under archaeologist Jānis Apals. Its wooden houses on a log platform show how people lived here a thousand years ago; one of Latvia’s most popular archaeological sites.