Review Reports

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Very experienced in medieval archaeology, architecture and protection of cultural heritage author of this paper deserves full respect for the risen topic, scientific quality of information and logical structure for analysis of practices of preserving medieval monuments of architecture during the Soviet period (1945-1991), especially case of Turaida castle.

Author Response

Thank you very much for taking the time to review this manuscript. Welcome to Turaida Castle!

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This is a clearly written study of the biography of Turaida castle, providing a much-needed synthesis of attitudes to heritage and conservation of medieval monuments in Latvia in the latter half of the 20th century.

I have one stylistic comment. Some paragraphs consist of single sentences, e.g. lines 315-317, and result in a disjointed narrative. These should be incorporated into longer paragraphs.

Author Response

Thank you very much for taking the time to review this manuscript. Welcome to Turaida Castle!

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The article gives a nice and comprehensive survey about the conservation practices at Turaida medieval castle in Latvia, also opening the broader political and ideological backgrounds of the activities. It describes general developments in the conservation practices of medieval castles during the Soviet period, providing also an assessment of the activities and highlighting both their positive  aspects and limitations.  While describing works at Turaida Castle, it also notes the greatly neglected status of other monuments, not of so primary importance. Although the text is greatly descriptive in character, it is good and easy to read. The author knows well what she is doing.

The manuscript is clear, in good language and logically structured, presenting the history of re-construction and conservation activities according to time periods. However, some references to written sources about the crucial points in the history of the castle might be added.

The comments are mostly limited with tiny remarks:

37: the years might be added: Livonian War in the latter half of the 16^th century -> “Livonian War (1558-1582)”

37: the lands -> “the lands formerly”

183: Turaida Castle was constructed -> “The stone castle of Turaida (castellum) was constructed in its primary form” or “Constructing the stone castle of Turaida began in 1214”

It also might be noted that earlier there was a Livonians’ hill fort. And in connection with 1214 a reference to the Chronicle of Livonia might be provided. The Chronicle (the German translation) should be added in the bibliography

191: Which war is meant by “the Livonian Wars of the late 16^th century?”  As noted above, a period of wars ended in 1582 already. The context of the sentence rather indicates the Swedish- Polish War of 1600-1625/27. Here the date of the Polish conquest and the sources that mention the conquests might be indicated.

358: “all-Union” – the contents of the term are clear for people who have grown up in the conditions of the Soviet regime, but is the term understandable for a present-day European reader?

393: “most recent pavement” – from which time period? Most recent Medieval pavement or Early Modern Period pavement or some pavement of the manor period?

453: “freezes in winter and thaws in spring” – the expression gives a wrong impression of the processes. It freezes and melts not only once per year, but there are frequent fluctuations around zero during the autumn-winter-early spring period, especially during the last decades, resulting from the climate change and warm winters.

458-459: using perforated bricks. Were being mechanically weak and monochromatic the only problems? What about the size of the Soviet bricks? Did they correspond the medieval measures of 9-10 x 13 x 27-29 cm? If they did not, this discrepancy with the original should surely be mentioned. Using bricks of wrong size greatly destroys the medieval atmosphere.

469: “at other sites” - > at other sites in Latvia

528: beside Kuressaare also Narva should be mentioned in Estonia

569: not Uurimusi, but uurimusi

604: Not “Dorpat, Estonia, 1942”, but Dorpat, 1942.

655: not Keskaegsed Linnused, but keskaegsed linnused.

The main shortcoming is that there is no plan of the castle among the illustrations. The text repeatedly refers to buildings and structures in different cardinal points, but it remains unclear for the reader which structure is meant. The photos are nice but they give no understanding of the cardinal points. A castle plan should surely be added, it might be one of the first illustrations (e.g. on page 6). On this plan also the three main phases of re-constructions works outlined in the text might be indicated (e.g. with colors or some other conventional signs).

Author Response

Thank you very much for taking the time to review this manuscript. Please find the detailed responses below and the corresponding corrections marked in red in the re-submitted file.

Point-by-point response to Comments and Suggestions

Comments 1: 37: the years might be added: Livonian War in the latter half of the 16th century -> “Livonian War (1558-1582)” Response 1: Thank you for pointing this out. I agree with this comment. Therefore, I have added “Livonian War (1558-1583)” - line 37.

Comments 2: 37: the lands -> “the lands formerly” Response 2: Agree. I have added “formerly” - line 37.

Comments 3: 183: Turaida Castle was constructed -> “The stone castle of Turaida (castellum) was constructed in its primary form” or “Constructing the stone castle of Turaida began in 1214” Response 3: Agree. I have added “The construction of stone castle in Turaida began” – line 184.   Comments 4: It also might be noted that earlier there was a Livonians’ hill fort. Response 4: Remains of the earlier Liv settlement which were found under the cultural layers of the stone castle have been already mentioned, s. line 313.

Comments 5: in connection with 1214 a reference to the Chronicle of Livonia might be provided. The Chronicle (the German translation) should be added in the bibliography Response 5: Thank you for suggestion. I have added a reference 19 - line 185 and 590-591.

Comments 6: 191: Which war is meant by “the Livonian Wars of the late 16th century?”  As noted above, a period of wars ended in 1582 already. The context of the sentence rather indicates the Swedish- Polish War of 1600-1625/27. Here the date of the Polish conquest and the sources that mention the conquests might be indicated. Response 6: Thank you for clarification. As all historical dates of this war related to Turaida are not studied in detail and published yet and the article is not about the history of the castle, I have not done document research in this field. I have added “Swedish- Polish War (1600-1625/27)” – line 193 and reference 21 - line 195.

Comments 7: 358: “all-Union” – the contents of the term are clear for people who have grown up in the conditions of the Soviet regime, but is the term understandable for a present-day European reader? Response 7: I have added “Soviet” - line 357.

Comments 8: 393: “most recent pavement” – from which time period? Most recent Medieval pavement or Early Modern Period pavement or some pavement of the manor period? Response 8: Thank you for the question. I have added “i.e. early modern”- line 392.   Comments 9: 453: “freezes in winter and thaws in spring” – the expression gives a wrong impression of the processes. It freezes and melts not only once per year, but there are frequent fluctuations around zero during the autumn-winter-early spring period, especially during the last decades, resulting from the climate change and warm winters. Response 9: In the previous sentence, there are mentioned already “frequent freeze-thaw cycles” – line 452.   Comments 10: 458-459: using perforated bricks. Were being mechanically weak and monochromatic the only problems? What about the size of the Soviet bricks? Did they correspond the medieval measures of 9-10 x 13 x 27-29 cm? If they did not, this discrepancy with the original should surely be mentioned. Using bricks of wrong size greatly destroys the medieval atmosphere. Response 10: During the research of the building remains of Turaida Castle, medieval bricks of ten different sizes were found, the dimensions of which are within the limits of 8.5-9.5 x 13.5-15 x 28.5-33.5 cm. The original medieval bricks of the West tower are 8.5x14x29 cm (Jansons 2007, 134). The restoration architect Jansons has emphasized that the dimensions of the Soviet bricks used in reconstruction of the West tower were appropriate, i.e. 8.5 x 14.5 x 29.5 cm (Jansons 2016, 127). Actually, small changes in brick size help to building researchers determine the construction date, renovations, rebuilding etc., therefore new bricks do not need to be completely in the same size till milimeters.    Comments 11: 469: “at other sites” - > at other sites in Latvia Response 11: Agree. I have added “in Latvia“- line 469   Comments 12: 528: beside Kuressaare also Narva should be mentioned in Estonia Response 12: Since my article is not about all the castles that were restored in the Baltic States, I do not see the need to mention also Narva Castle, where the circumstances have been different from Turaida – ​​e.g., it was destroyed during World War II and is located in the city; extensive research was not conducted there before the restoration in Soviet era, detailed report of the reconstruction of the castle in Soviet time is not published yet, etc.   Comments 13: 569: not Uurimusi, but uurimusi Response 13: in the title of the Journal, capital letters are used, s. homepage https://ktu.kty.ee/   Comments 14: 604: Not “Dorpat, Estonia, 1942”, but Dorpat, 1942. Response 14: “Instruction for Authors” - https://www.mdpi.com/journal/heritage/instructions#preparation  - suggest such form “Publisher: Publisher Location, Country, Year”, so I have followed it.

Comments 15: 655: not Keskaegsed Linnused, but keskaegsed linnused. Response 15: on the title page of the book, capital letters are used. Since nouns are not capitalized in sentences in Estonian, perhaps it is better not to do so. I corrected according to reviewer's suggestion – lowercase letters - line 655.

Comments 16: The main shortcoming is that there is no plan of the castle among the illustrations. The text repeatedly refers to buildings and structures in different cardinal points, but it remains unclear for the reader which structure is meant. The photos are nice but they give no understanding of the cardinal points. A castle plan should surely be added, it might be one of the first illustrations (e.g. on page 6). On this plan also the three main phases of re-constructions works outlined in the text might be indicated (e.g. with colors or some other conventional signs).   Response 16: Thank you for carefully reading my article. I have added the plan as Fig. 1 (b) with explanations – lines 125-128.

Thank you  very much once more for taking the time to review this manuscript. Welcome to Turaida Castle!

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 4 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The referenced litterature is fine but references to other than Latvian publications are limited.

In Fig. 6 the most important parts/buildings of the castle could be mentioned so that it would be easier for the reader to identify them. 

I'd recommend a general plan over the castle to be added to the figures.

Author Response

Thank you very much for taking the time to review this manuscript.

Point-by-point response to Comments and Suggestions

Comments 1: The referenced litterature is fine but references to other than Latvian publications are limited.

Response 1: Agree. There are limited articles that discuss heritage preservation practices during the Soviet era, or I haven't been able to find more so far. However, I tried to do the best I could.

 

Comments 2: In Fig. 6 the most important parts/buildings of the castle could be mentioned so that it would be easier for the reader to identify them. 

Response 2: Since Fig. 6 is a photo, I don't think it would be a good idea to add numbers there.

 

Comments 3: I'd recommend a general plan over the castle to be added to the figures.

Response 3: Thank you for idea. I have added a plan with explanations Fig. 1 (b).

Thank you very much once more and welcome to Turaida Castle!

Reviewer 5 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The paper discusses the preservation practices of medieval Livonian castles, and especially the Turaida castle, during the Soviet occupation period in a clear, objective, and informative fashion. I don't see any need for major revisions and I recommend publishing the paper in present form.

Author Response

Thank you very much for taking the time to review this manuscript. Welcome to Turaida Castle!