About In the valley of the Gauja River in Latvia—then Livonia—near the imposing Turaida Castle, a simple grave beneath a linden tree marks the resting place of a woman known as the Rose of Turaida. Her name was Maija. According to legend, she was found as an infant after a 17th-century battle during the Polish–Swedish Wars, discovered in her dead mother’s embrace. She was raised by the secretary of the Castle and grew up, as the story goes, known for her beauty and kindness, thus called the Rose of Turaida.   She fell in love with a gardener from the other side of the river, Viktor Heil, who worked as a gardener at Sigulda Castle. In the evenings, the couple would meet halfway at Gutman's Cave. A deserter became obsessed with her. When she refused his advances, he concocted a plan: he tricked Maija into coming to the cave by sending a false message in her lover’s name.…