Koknese trip planner

Koknese is a historic town in Latvia, the administrative centre of Koknese municipality on the right bank of the Daugava River. It has a population of nearly 3,000.HistoryThe site of Koknese was originally a Latgalian and Selonian settlement named Kukenois. By the late 12th century, the settlement of Koknese had fallen under the loose sovereignty of Principality of Polotsk as a tributary sub-principality.At the beginning of the 13th century, the crusading Livonian Brothers of the Sword led by Bishop Albert of Buxhoeveden of Riga began to occupy the shores of the Gulf of Riga. By 1205 in return for protection against Lithuanians and Polotsk, the Orthodox Church prince Vyachko (Vetseka) of Koknese gave half of his land to Albert. By 1209 Koknese had been taken over by the Order, whereupon Albert ordered the construction of a stone castle where the Daugava meets the Pērse river to replace the wooden fortification of the Latvians. The formal sovereignty of Polotsk was finally revoked in 1215. The Order then controlled the town until its transference in 1238 to the bishops of Riga. The town became the summer residence of the Archbishop of Riga in 1420 and the primary residence in the 16th century.