“When we enter the new glass building, we see the keys found in archaeological excavations brought out in the palace area. The visitor will also receive a symbolic key to unlock the various exposure stories. The key is interactive, it will be possible to start a video and start a game and to highlight Hansa's roads and to unlock Valmiera's stories in different ways,” said Alberts Rokpelnis, head of Valmiera Tourism Information Center.
“The first stories are also based on the keywords that people ask most about Valmiera's history. They are about Valmiera's name, about Gauja, about the founding of Valmiera, about the coat of arms. Here is also a representation of the oldest known original document on which Valmiera's coat of arms is based. The original is in Lübeck's archive, dated 1381, and on it are the prints of the Valmiera coat of arms in yellow wax," said Liene Rokpelne, Head of the History Division of the Valmiera Museum.
The exposition is installed in all the castle buildings and the outdoor area.
The outdoor display is available all day, inviting you to walk through the maze of the palace wall under the glass building. There is also a metal-fired mock-up of the castle.
“The special thing in the “de Woldemer” exposition is that, since Valmiera's archive has burned down, we have to put history together by pieces, looking for evidence from different sources. Therefore, we are experiencing cases where a well-known history story is revealed from another perspective. For example, the old Valmiera name “de Woldemer”. Valmiera has had several names, the most common and resonant is Wolmar, but this is how we tell the story of an even older document with the name of Valmiera,” said the head of the museum's History Division.
“The exposition story is the intersection between accurately known facts and hypotheses. It is also reflected in the play of the design with historical content – it calls for symbols, suggests thinking, and learning more information by involving different senses. The visitor is likely to discover something new every time they come," added Alberts Rokpelnis.
