“The sight of the high towers and walls of Wenden was a terrible sight for the conquered natives of Livonia. Like a giant, the castle towered over the city and over the hilly surroundings, protecting the power of the Hermeisters of the Order of the Swordsmen. The power of the Order has already been crushed, Livonia has changed rulers; but the sad descendant of the once free tribe, in humiliation, still marveled at the power that erected these huge masses of stones fused together over time, which despised both the violence of the elements and human enmity. The impregnable, ancient stronghold, overgrown with moss, aroused respect for itself, like the gray hairs of an old man, witnesses of disappeared generations. Now, in the contention of the three powers for the possession of Livonia, the irreplaceable king of Livonia, Magnus, took refuge here from the wrath of the Russian Tsar, from the terrible wrath of Ivan the Terrible!..”