The Konrāds Quarter will be completed this summer
If you close your eyes for a moment and imagine Torņa Street in the past, beneath your feet there would most likely be uneven cobblestones, the rattling of carts echoing in your ears, horses tied to house walls or posts, and the air filled with the bustle of the market mixed with the scents of workshops. Evening would arrive earlier than today—the streets lit by torches and the glow slipping through the windows of houses. The town breathes.
This is the heart of Cēsis Old Town - a place between St. John’s Church and the Cēsis Medieval Castle. Since the 13th century, the church tower has served as a landmark for both townspeople and travelers. For centuries, the city’s central space - the Market Square—stood in front of it, where roads, people, and news all met.
Since the 1940s, we have called this place Rose Square, yet its essence has not changed - it remains one of the city’s most important meeting places.
Right here, between the church and the castle, stand the buildings that are now united as the Konrāds Quarter - Konrāds House, Draugu House, the Pastor’s House, and the Carriage House. For a long time they were merely distant neighbors - each with its own fate, weariness, and silence. One was covered in layers of debris, from another only dust remained. Each emerged in its own era, forming stories that were never connected.
The quarter as an idea was born only now - not to make the buildings the same, but to allow them to live together. Each of the four buildings has its own personality, character, and experience. It is precisely this difference that allows them to complement one another and form a single organism - a living whole where every space has its role, like a cog that sets the next one in motion, working together with even greater strength.
Published09/03/2026
Jānis Palkavnieks