09 • 09 • 2015
7.2 km historical exploration trail built at Tirelpurvs
Today is the 100th anniversary since formation of the Latvian Riflemen Battalion. With support from JSC "Latvian State Forests", a 7.2 kilometer-long exploration trail has been established at the Tirelpurvs Marsh, that stretches over territories where the historic Christmas battles took place. A section previously unavailable for public view. Furthermore, the exhibition „Latviešu strēlnieku bataljoniem 100" (100th Anniversary of the Latvian Riflemen Battalions) opened September 9.
The outdoor exhibition offers historic accounts – excerpts from soldier diaries and letters and photographs – with the aim to help understand the experiences of the riflemen during the Christmas Battles. Meanwhile, the new exploration trail offers an opportunity to learn about specific battlegrounds.
The route includes 13 informative display panels, providing the opportunity for a look at fortification ruins, engineering facilities, and precisely-identifiable locations of historic events.
"The trail is a natural route, which covers seven kilometers, starting at the place where the riflemen gathered before their attack during the Christmas Battles, all the way through barbed wire fences of that time, over the front line, where they invaded the German fortification. And here we can see places that remained in nature after the war, for example, bomb trenches and German military well. All these places are marked with informative panels, which offer more information, as well as photos from that time to compare them with the modern day," says Dagnis Dedumietis, the creator of the exploration trail, Director of the Christmas Battles Museum.
Exploration trail at the Christmas Battles battlegrounds
The newly-established history trail leads down the road of the 1st Latvian Riflemen Brigade of 5 January 1917
