Amatciems is a small enclave 80kms. east of Riga. It is a
unique setting combining old and new. The old, of course, is the
natural beauty of the setting, unspoiled forests and fields. The
new aspect is the concept of community envisioned by the
developer, Čiris, who imagined a community of like-minded people
living in a nature-centric world. He describes Amaciems as "my vision [of] how to live in the
facilitated village and get on well with nature, wild animals
and other inhabitants of Amatciems. The Internal Rules are
provided for like-minded people who do not consider them as
restricting their action but promoting peace and silence. They
determine that there are no fences in the village, during the
evenings and night time it is not allowed to make a loud noise
and remind that dog is a friend of yours and can not be
chained."
As can be seen from the banner
photo above, Amatciems is a community built in the forest
surrounded by a series of small manmade bodies of water. The
houses tend to be either traditional (photo on left), or
contemporary with a nod to traditional design, as is the case of
our hosts' house (photo to the right). What
they have in common is their privacy--each house is nestled
within its own natural coccoon, as few houses have a view of
another dwelling.
The area was a
mixture of grasslands (not unlike our recent visit to �land,
Sweden) and heavily wooded areas. We saw both in our walks
around the area, including a mushroom foraging expedition with
our hosts! The grassland is shown in the photo at the upper
left, while the photo upper right shows the wooded areas and one
of the manmade ponds dotting the landscape. Another
unique feature of Amatciems was the wooden walkway that wound
around a considerable portion of the area, allowing easier
access to other parts of the enclave than trekking through the
woods. It is visible in the banner at the top of the page and in
the photo at the bottom right. One of the highlights of
Amatciems is Latvia's only 5-star hotel and spa, Jonathan Spa,
overlooking the water. It is shown in the photo bottom
right. Below this paragraph is an aerial video
of Amatciems, shot from this boardwalk. (My
flying skills must have been 
a
bit rusty, as the first part of the panorama is a bit blurry due
to my rotating the Mavic Air too quickly. The last part of the
video is much clearer!)
Aerial View of Amatciems
On our way back from the
boardwalk we had a taste of rural life as Olga and Sergey
stopped by a local farmhouse to purchase some milk and fresh
cheese, just as people might have done 100 years earlier. The
photo to the left shows the farmhouse where the eggs and cheesse
are stored and sold, while the photo to the left shows the barn.
Living in Amatciems seems to combine many of the comforts of
modern life with the rural pace and flavor of traditional
Latvian society.
