The Livonian Brothers of the Sword began the stone castle in 1213 or 1214, beside a Wend hillfort. The Livonian branch of the Teutonic Order took over in 1237 and rebuilt it. In the late 14th century it became a convent-type castle with four ranges around a courtyard, a form the article says was imported from Prussia. The article names no architect. Wolter von Plettenberg oversaw further reconstruction, and three round artillery towers were added around 1500. The builders used stone masonry, brick vaulting, plaster and timber.
Ivan the Terrible's army besieged it in 1577, and about 300 people died in a gunpowder explosion. The Great Northern War brought more damage, and the roofless ruins gradually collapsed.
Cēsis Municipality owns it. It is a museum, listed in 1925, with about 100,000 visitors in 2016.
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