Hotels in Baltic estates: "You do not have to be crazy"

The parket creaks when entering. Chandeliers hang from the ceiling, decorated with stucco reliefs, exposed paintings and innumerable paintings on the walls, and the rooms are filled with antique furniture. "My guests should get a sense of how the landed gentry lived and rejoiced," says Daniel Jahn on a tour through the estate Kukschen, about 85 kilometers west of the Latvian capital Riga.

The German hotelier leads through furnished with love for detail mansion, which German Baltic nobles have built. Jahn bought Kuksu Muiza, as the property is called in Latvian, in a desolate state shortly before the turn of the millennium and brought it back to life.

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Thus, the Rhineland-Palatinate has become a kind of trendsetter in the Baltic States, where more and more estates experience a stylish rebirth as museums, restaurants or hotels.

For a long time they were considered a symbol of oppression by the Baltic Germans, who, as the ruling elite, once shaped politics and cultural history in Latvia and Estonia until the independence of the Länder in 1918. A few years ago, a rethinking began: Today, the estates, whose heyday began as prestigious estates in the second half of the 18th century, count as part of the heritage to be preserved.

Purchased for $ 18,000, renovated for millions

"When I saw the house for the first time, it was a ruin," says Jahn. The roof had large holes, the windows were missing, the walls were partially sunken, the park was overgrown with weeds. Nevertheless, the late fifties immediately took a liking to the historic building. For 18,000 US dollars, he bought the 1530 first mentioned in writing mansion in which the mother of the German-Baltic writer Werner Bergengruen was born.

"The purchase was ultimately a pure gut decision," says Jahn, who has been living in Latvia since the early 1990s. When looking at old photos, he still sometimes wondered about his courage. The first sign of his investment was the first impression, and also the picture of how the manor house on the lake behind it reflects: "It looked like an enchanted fairytale castle," he says.

In Germany, Jahn had studied economics and hotel management, then worked worldwide as a chef, waiter and hotel manager. After Latvia regained independence, he took over the management of the first hotel with Western standards - it became the best place in the square. In 2007 he started his own business with Gut Kukschen and founded the estate tourism in Latvia.

To make the run-down property shine again in its old splendor, Jahn invested several million euros. For the most true to the original renovation, he added preservationists and historians, collected on the basis of an old inventory list of period furniture and bought paintings. The result is a quiet and secluded country hotel with more than a dozen guest rooms, in which Latvian state presidents, foreign dignitaries and German dignitaries have stayed.

"You have to love a house like this"

But the competition for Jahn is growing. In Latvia, as in neighboring Estonia, more and more old manors are being renovated and converted into hotels - often with state-of-the-art interiors. For example, a five-star hotel moved into the Latvian Rümene estate, and you can also spend the night in the baroque Liepupe estate, in Mezotne Castle or in the Svente estate. "Mansions are becoming increasingly popular as the standard of living increases, many people want to feel like aristocrats," says Janis Lazdans of Latvian Association of Castles, Castles and Manor Houses.

Also Riin Alatalu of Estonian Gutshausverband sees an increasing interest in the estates. "They are popular with domestic and foreign visitors," she says of the buildings, which often stand out from the countryside with their bright colors and imposing architecture. About 1250 of them existed in Estonia more than 100 years ago, the same number in Latvia - most of them Renaissance, Baroque and Art Nouveau buildings.

Today, hundreds of properties are for sale. Apart from those properties that were worn down after the end of the Gutsherrenzeit as village schools or homes and in Soviet times were otherwise misappropriated, decayed the majority of them. The prices for the farmhouses, which often consist of several buildings, parks and gardens, range from one euro to several million, as the association representatives report.

But the purchase presents special challenges: In addition to the advanced decay, it is often the lack of economic usability, which stands in the way of preserving the listed buildings. Also funding for the restoration does not exist, but a lot of conditions.

"You have to love a house like that, because economically it's an adventure," says Jahn. After deduction of all personnel and material costs, there is hardly anything left, not to mention the costs of maintaining the property with its extensive and mostly park-like grounds. "You have to be an enthusiast and a little crazy to get involved."