Sigulda cable car
Cable car
Jāņa Poruka Street 14, Sigulda, Latvia, LV-2150
+(371) 2802 0088
vagonins@lgk.lv
siguldaadventures.com
Sigulda cable car offers a trip over the Gauja old valley, overlooking a charming landscape of several kilometers, including Sigulda and Turaida castle, Krimulda manor house, as well as the Bobsleigh and luge track "Sigulda". The cable car connects both riverbanks in a width of 1025 meters.
The cable car can accommodate up to 15 people in one trip.
Ticket payment on the Krimulda side only in cash, on the Sigulda side – both in cash and by card.
The cable car history
The author of the idea about the cable car is Sigulda local Aivars Janelsītis. One evening, when the bridge over the Gauja after the war had not been restored yet, he sat on the left bank of the Gauja river – on the side of Sigulda – and thought that he, as a birdie, could cross over to Krimulda, where his beloved Genoveva worked as a nurse at the sanatorium. A few years later, when Aivars and Genoveva were already married, a magazine published an article on passenger cableways in the Georgian mountain town of Chiatura. Aivars Janelsītis, working as the head of the Community Management of Riga District Executive Committee from 1954 to 1974, began a correspondence with the author of the cableway G. Panceluja. A proposal for the construction of a cableway across the Gauja old valley was prepared for the district administration, support was requested at the republican level from the Cabinet of Ministers, a project was prepared, a Georgian delegation was admitted to the 750th anniversary of Sigulda, and Georgians announced that they would donate a technical project and equipment to Sigulda. However, the works in 1962 were stopped and resumed only in 1965. The cableway mechanism was made in Leningrad, Russia, and a cable car – at the Riga Wagon Factory. More than 200 people worked at it so that it would become a cableway. The technical project was elaborated by 20 people.
At the beginning of 1969, with an orchestra playing, a 1025-meter long trail over the valley was unveiled. The bearing cable without middle support connects the banks of the Gauja River valley between Sigulda and Krimulda at a height of about 40 meters above the river. In the first year, 270 000 passengers were carried by cable car, including locals and city guests. In the following years, the number of passengers of the cable car reached almost 300 000 people a year, becoming not only a symbol of Sigulda but also a very popular tourist destination. Estimates suggest that during the first 40 years of the existence of the cable car, about 6 million people have traveled with it.
Attractions
From the cable car, there is an outstanding view of the Gauja River old valley, three medieval castles – Sigulda, Turaida, and Krimulda, the Bobsleigh Track, and, of course, the Gauja bridge. The cable car serves as a unique means of transport, it runs on a fixed schedule and rides passengers across the valley on average once every half hour.
In the summer season lovers of more extreme feelings can check the courage at bungee jumping and in the ride with the attraction zipline “Zērglis”. Currently, the Sigulda cable car is a popular tourist attraction that attracts travelers from both Latvia and around the world, making daily trips.
tourism.sigulda.lv
