23/07/2026
🏰🇱🇻 Daugavpils 2026
Soldiers of Napoleon's Grande Armée marched across great distances on foot, sometimes to reach places most had never even heard of. The Latvian fortress town of Daugavpils, known at the time as Dinaburg, was probably one of those places. Yet it's a beautiful and remarkably well-preserved example of an early 19th-century fortress, and the site of a minor battle we had the honour of reenacting this summer.
Dinaburg Fortress was fairly modern by military standards, as construction only began in 1810, in anticipation of a French invasion. By the summer of 1812, it was still unfinished when it became the site of a minor battle between the Russian garrison and Marshal Oudinot, later followed by Macdonald's X Corps pushing north toward Riga.
Although it was rather a skirmish, the reenactment of it was anything but minor for us. We won't pretend our journey compares to a campaign march, but Daugavpils is one of the furthest places we have ever travelled to bring this history to life. We thank the organisers for the warm welcome and for making the event possible.
