Padise Abbey

[2] The interest in Padise of monks from Dünamünde Abbey in the present Daugavgrīva near Riga is first documented in 1283 in a letter from King Eric V of Denmark (Eric Klipping) regarding the acquisition of land for the construction of a Cistercian monastery, but almost certainly they had had a presence there for several decades previously as a part of the Christianisation of the territories of Estonia newly conquered by the Teutonic Knights.

[3] By 1343, at the time of the St. George's Night Uprising, when it was still only partly built, the monastery was burnt down and 28 monks, lay brothers and German vassals were killed.

By 1445 all major works, including the construction of the gatehouse and the residential and service buildings, had been completed, and vaulting had been added to the church roof.

[4] In 1622 King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden gave the estates of the former Padise Abbey to Thomas Ramm, Burgermeister of Riga, in the possession of whose family it remained until 1919.

When in 1766 it was struck by lightning and burnt down, the Ramms used the stone to build a Neo-Classical manor house nearby.