Lutheran church in Sece, Latvia

As the twentieth anniversary of the restoration of Latvia's independence approaches, I will occasional post entries about the small but proud country.

The Lutheran church in Sece, Mrs. Marathon Pundit's hometown, was built in 1792--the steeple was added in 1895.

According to my wife, when the German and Russians fought in Sece, the Kaiser's soldiers shot at the Czar's soldiers from that steeple/ About 200 of the Germans who fell in the battle are buried near the church. She doesn't remember what year the battle was fought, but because the frontline between the Russians and the Germans was static along the Daugava River from 1915 to 1917, and Sece is just south of the river, my guess is that the Battle of Sece was fought in '15.

After the Soviet takeover of Latvia in 1940, the church was closed by the atheists and boarded-up. After Latvia regained its independence in 1991, services were held again in the church, albeit in a small room within the structure, for five parishioners--one of whom was my mother-in-law.

Both of the photographs were taken by Mrs. Marathon Pundit in 1990.

For a color photograph of the church, click here.

Sece is in the Aizkraukle District of Latvia.

Related posts:

• Twenty years ago: Latvia's Barricade Days
• Riga Doms and Latvia's Barricade Days
• Latvia 20 years after independence: Tearing down a Stučka statue
• 1990 bread line in Riga, Latvia
• Potato harvesting in Latvia in the early 1970s
• From the other side of the Iron Curtain: Gas mask drill in Latvia