Lacplešis, the Bearslayer - Riga, Latvia
N 56° 57.062 E 024° 06.285
35V E 323919 N 6315665
This statue of Lacplešis, the Bearslayer, is located on the historic House of the Livonian Noble Corporation (now the home of the Parliament of Latvia) in the Old Town of Riga, Latvia.
Waymark Code: WMPNE0
Location: Latvia
Date Posted: 09/26/2015
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The statue of this epic character is located in a niche on the historic House of the Livonian Noble Corporation building. It was created by sculptor Rihards Maurs.
The statue depicts Lacplesis in a tunic and wearing sandals that have straps wrapping around his calves up to his knees. He holds a sword in both hands, with the tip of the sword resting on the ground. A dead bear is draped over his right arm. Another bear is on the ground and his right foot rests on top of it.
The following information about Lacplesis is from the City Paper (
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"In both Latvia and Estonia the creation of literary epics coincided with the growth of a new national consciousness in the 19th century. The epics not only reflected these national movements in the two Baltic nations—they actually helped spur them on. Latvia's epic was Lacplesis, set in pagan Latvia of 800 years ago, around the time of the nation's conquest by German Crusaders. Like Estonia's Kalevipoeg epic, Latvia's epic recounts the exploits of a giant-sized man—named Lacplesis—who endeavors to defend his homeland from assorted invaders. Lacplesis, or the Bear Slayer, is part man, part bear—which accounts for his unusually large, fuzzy ears. Otherwise a kindly figure, Lacplesis goes into action whenever his fellow Latvians are in trouble. His specialty is marauding bears, which he can slay by ripping their jaws apart with his bare hands.
The epic was written by Andrejs Pumpurs (1841-1902), who based his story line on existing Latvian folklore. The epic conjures up images of black magic, and also takes its fair share of shots at Germans. Christianizing knights from Germany invaded Latvia in the 13th century and, by the 1800s, their descendants continued to wield enormous power and influence in Latvia. At the time of the epic's publication, 1888, there was considerable bitterness about the German dominance. The epic was partly meant to show that the downtrodden Latvians had a history and culture every bit as grand as their German overlords.
Lacplesis has had a huge impact on Latvia, influencing generations of writers, artists and politicians. The spectre of the traitor-figure Kangers is still raised when Latvians speak of Soviet-era turncoats. The government has revived the pre-war Order of Lacplesis, the nation's highest award for service to Latvia. Streets are named after Latvia's epic hero, and many shops take their names from characters in the epic."
Additional information is available at the Wikipedia (
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