Guardhouse
In 1889, a guardhouse was constructed at the paper mill to register incoming and outgoing cargo. At that time, the factory was not enclosed by a fence, allowing horse-drawn carriages, pedestrians, and later also cars move freely through its grounds.
The Līgatne Paper Mill had once a narrow-gauge railway running through its grounds, where a narrow-gauge train was in operation. The first railway was constructed in 1894, using light rails with a 750 mm gauge for transporting push-trolleys. These tracks connected the rag depots with the sorting facility in the Central Mill, or the so-called ‘Principal Facility’. A narrow-gauge track was later constructed to connect the Central Mill with the ‘Beiwerk’, or the Lower Mill, simplifying the transportation of rag cloth materials to the production area. Another narrow-gauge railway connected the Central Mill with the ‘Anfabrik’, or the Auxiliary Facility. After World War II, the ‘Anfabrik’ housed facilities for manufacturing wooden crates, from where the finished crates were transported daily by the narrow-gauge train to the sorting facility in the Central Mill.
In 1942/43, a narrow-gauge railway with a length of 8 kilometres was constructed to connect the Līgatne Railway Station with the paper mill, facilitating the transportation of raw materials and finished products. A section of this railway line remains visible where the tracks cross the street Brīvības iela at the paper mill. This railway operated until the 1990s. The former track route along the Līgatne Pond and the canal has been repurposed into a scenic walking trail. It stretches from the Guardhouse, currently the Līgatne Tourism Information Centre, to the ‘Anfabrik’ cliff.
In 1990, to commemorate the 175th anniversary of the Līgatne Paper Mill, a monument was erected next to the Guardhouse. It essentially consists of millstones engraved with the original name of the paper mill ‘Conradsruhe’. A capsule embedded in the monument safeguards the timeless narrative of Līgatne paper, a legacy for future generations.
