Festival Baltijas Saule "Baltic Sun"

The festival is to honor the September 21, 1236 Battle of Saule, where the Livonian Brothers of the Sword suffered defeat. The Battle of Saule (German: Schlacht von Schaulen; Latvian: Saules kauja; Lithuanian: Saulės mūšis or Šiaulių mūšis) was fought on September 22, 1236 between the Livonian Brothers of the Sword and pagan Semigallians, Lithuanians and Samogitians. Some 50 to 60 knights were killed, including the Livonian Master, Volkwin; it was the earliest large-scale defeat suffered by the orders in Baltic lands. The Sword-Brothers, the first Catholic military order established in the Baltic lands, was soundly defeated and its remnants accepted incorporation into the Teutonic Order in 1237. The battle inspired Curonians, Semigallians, and Selonians, Baltic tribes previously conquered by the Sword-Brothers, to rebel. Some thirty years' worth of conquests on the left bank of Daugava was lost.