The Vidzeme landscape, Vilhelms Purvītis and the “Vecjauži” house form a unique triumvirate, combining scenic beauty, artistic excellence and cultural heritage. This link complements and highlights Latvia’s rich cultural environment, where each element creates an unforgettable overall picture.

Marshland, forests, fields, ponds – these lands live, breathe and exist as a unique landscape heritage of the artist Vilhelms Purvītis. The Purvītis Foundation, surrounded by the suggestive sound of forests, participates in an impressive project “Investments in the expansion of forest areas and improvement of forest viability”. 2023.Autumn 2023 saw the planting of 3000 spruce, 1000 birch and 600 alder trees in the area. The composition of the restored forest trees was created as a symbolic tribute to the “Purvītis landscape”, which can be enjoyed in the artist’s paintings.

But it’s not just forests that make the Purvītis landscape magnificent. The “Vecjauži” house is also home to 22 Purvītis-era apple trees. At times, they seem to whisper stories of times gone by, and at the same time, of surprising futures.
On the hill across the road from the “Vecjauži” house, you can also see the new apple orchard with 600 cider apple trees, which will bear fruit in five years.
2024. In 2024, the apple orchard will be expanded to continue to express the blossoming spirit of the Purvītis home.
Ponds that once basked in the sunshine and served as flax marshes have now been taken over by beavers. As symbols of the continuity of life and the cyclical changes of nature, they are to be restored.

“Vecjauži” has been granted the status– of a cultural monument of national importance “Birthplace of the painter V. Purvītis” with an adjacent protection zone. It is a special and honourable designation, which highlights the site as an important part of our cultural heritage and honours not only the Vidzeme landscape and its hills but also Purvītis’ artistic legacy. It is an invitation to all of us to take care of the Vilhelms Purvītis family home and to maintain the precious link between the past and the present.

The first harvest of the new apple orchard, 2022