Wenden

Wenden (Lettish Tseziz), a town of western Russia, in the government of Livonia, 60 m. by rail N.E. of Riga. Pop. (1897) 6327. Here are the well preserved ruins of a former castle of the Brethren of the Sword, afterwards (from 1237) of the grandmaster of the Teutonic Knights. In 1 577 the garrison blew it up to prevent it from falling into the hands of Ivan the Terrible of Russia. It was rebuilt, but has been in ruins since a fire in 1748.