travel online magazine: Latvia - Sun City, A Hobbit Dwelling Place

Latvian millionaire started near the town of Cesis (Latvia) a fantastic project.

He purchased over 3000 hectares of wild forest, a terrain rich in hills and water. And that's how this spectacular "Sun City" was built. When I look at the pictures, it reminds me of Hobbit Village from Tolkien's "Lord of The Rings". The area is full of lush green nature, serenity seems built into the landscape.

If you want to live at Sun City (which is as away from the concept of "Sin City" as possible), there are special rules to go by, including a routine different from a common life.

First, three-storey houses are made of environmentally friendly materials constructed in a manner, which takes the terrain into account. The specific design of the houses makes the windows of each house not visible to other houses.

Secondly, near each of the 300 houses there is a small lake and forest, all of it included in cost of land (from 0,4 to 1,3 ha each).

Thirdly, all houses are equipped with central sewer (there is a special equipment laid under the roots of pine and fir trees!), High-speed Internet, electricity, and each house has a geothermal heat pump with borehole 90-100m deep, which converts the energy of the earth into the heat. The amound of heat produced is enough to provide enough energy to heat the house (and water) all year round. The need for using additional traditional firewood heating may only occur during some severe winter days. Of course, a fireplace is also available in every home. Additionally, garbage collection and other urban amenities are also available.

Fourth, in this unique forest city, there are some more special rules - for example, it is forbidden to build a fence and have a guard dog (even if it's a chain dog). Dogs are allowed only in the houses. The reason for this rule is because of roe deer and other wild animals roaming freely in this "city", and barking dogs simply would chase them away.

For the Russian and Belarusian consumers, owner of Sun City offers special conditions - the sale of land with the house and unique postal address, the plot can be issued as a "production area" This entitles those customers to having a year-round "Schengen area" (very handy for those businessmen, who have their companies outside the EU).

Just an example for land and house pricing: plot Tilbites with a three-story house which includes all the necessary amenities, and also has a lake and forest area of 0.44 ha costs as much as 94000 Euros. The design of each house is unique, there are no identical buildings in there.