Grūbele (Grūbļa) hillfort

Grūbele Castle Mound is located in the territory inhabited by the ancient Seljuks and is considered to be one of the Seljuk castle mounds. It is 30 to 35 metres high, detached, round, with a flat surface, sandy ground and pine forest. There are steep slopes to the north-west and south-west and three terraces on the other sides of the hill. The mound has no ditches or ramparts and its hummocky surface has been partially levelled by excavations. A small cultural layer is faintly visible on the plateau, but on the eastern edge, under a layer of sand, a layer of charcoal earth has been dug down to a depth of 2 metres. Many First World War trenches and dugouts are visible at the foot of the hill and on the slopes, and a trench even encircles the mound from the summit to the foot.

The hillfort has not been studied archaeologically, but the construction of the fortifications suggests that it belonged to fortified castles. The mound is not mentioned in the historical chronicles, but it belongs to the mounds characteristic of the Seljuk culture. In 1926, Ernests Brastiņš surveyed the castle mound and described it in the records of his expedition to survey the castle mounds of Zemgale. At the end of the 20th century, the mound was also studied by archaeologist Juris Urtāns, who in 1995 found a shard of striped pottery without a handle, which very roughly dates the mound to the 1st millennium BC. and AD. first half of the 1st millennium. There are quite a lot of Early and Middle Iron Age antiquities in the vicinity of the hillfort.

Many tales have been recorded about the Grūbele hillfort, telling of the church that once stood on the hill and then sank. One of the tales says that the church on the hill had a bell and that the whole land rang with its ringing on Sunday mornings. The Devil in the underworld got angry at the disturbance and decided to sink the church, which the Devil did. The story goes that if you go up to the mountain in the morning and put your ear to the ground, you can hear the wonderful sound of the bells.