History of Latvia

The territory of the present Latvia has been inhabited since the third millennium BC, and
became a centre of the European trade. The amber found in Latvia was as valuable as
gold, being the material of precious jewels in the ancient Greece and the Roman Empire.
The ancient people of Latvia were farmers and hunters in the inland, many of them
became sailors and fishermen along the Baltic Sea.

The territory of Latvia has always been the target of many nations, because of it's
strategic location. In the 12th century German traders and preachers established
settlements in Latvia. The largest of them, Riga, founded in 1201 became part of the
Hanseatic trading alliance. After the arrival of the crusader knights no tribes opposed to
Christian faith.

In the following centuries the neighbouring lands occupied Latvia. In the 16th century
Latvia became part of the Polish-Lithuanian Kingdom, but in the 17th century it came
under Swedish rule for a century, often remembered as the golden era compared to other
occupiers. In the 18th century Russia was victorious in the northern wars, bringing all of
what is now Latvia into Imperial Russia. In the 19th century the Russian reforms
dispossessed the peasants of their land, thus the numbers of urban population increased,
and Riga became a large industrial centre and one of the largest cities in the Russian
Empire. Latvia preserved it's national identity against forced Russification, but the
uprising in 1905 was suppressed by the Tsar.

Russian influence weakened after the Grand Revolution, and Latvia retained
independence after the First World War in a war against German and Russian forces. The
devastated country had a brief period of democracy and economic recovery, but a coup in
1934 established a nationalist dictatorship. The new regime tried to keep it's neutrality
and independency in the early years of the Second World War, but it's fate was decided
by the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. Soviet troops re-occupied Latvia, and remained there
until 1994.

Latvia became independent from the collapsing USSR in 1991. The democratic
government returned to the old currency, denationalized the state property, liberated the
market and successfully reoriented the country to the Western states. Latvia has been a
member of the European Union since May 1, 2004, and member of the NATO since
April 2, 2004.

Culture of Latvia
Latvia is a country with a history of a millennia. The many monuments and historical
cities, two World Heritage sites and also numerous masterpieces created by painters,
musicians, writers and scientists are awaiting all visitors of the country.
The midsummer festival of Ligo or Jani takes place every year between June 23rd and
24th to celebrate the shortest night of the year.

Latvian Song and Dance festivals are one of the most important events in Latvia. The
country won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2002, and hosted the event on May 24, 2003

Cuisine

Traditional dishes to taste are the Kimenu siers (caraway cheese), borshch (beet soup),
rasols (potato salad), and sauerkraut. There is also a Latvian version of the smorgasbord,
Aukstais galds, piragi. Popular drinks are beer, vodka, and balzam. Pickled mushrooms
are also a Latvian speciality. Close to the sea restaurants offer fresh seafood.

World Heritage

Historic Centre of Riga

Riga was a major centre of the Hanseatic League, deriving its prosperity in the 13th-15th
centuries from the trade with central and eastern Europe. The urban fabric of its medieval
centre reflects this prosperity, though most of the earliest buildings were destroyed by fire
or war. Riga became an important economic centre in the 19th century, when the suburbs
surrounding the medieval town were laid out, first with imposing wooden buildings in
neoclassical style and then in Jugendstil. It is generally recognized that Riga has the
finest collection of art nouveau buildings in Europe.

Struve Geodetic Arc

The Struve Arc is a chain of survey triangulations stretching from Hammerfest in
Norway to the Black Sea, through ten countries and over 2,820km. These are points of a
survey, carried out between 1816 and 1855 by the astronomer Friedrich Georg Wilhelm
Struve, which represented the first accurate measuring of a long segment of a meridian.
This helped establish the exact size and shape of our planet and marked an important step
in the development of earth sciences and topographic mapping. It is an extraordinary
example of scientific collaboration among scientists from different countries, and of
collaboration between monarchs for a scientific cause. The original arc consisted of 258
main triangles with 265 main station points. The listed site includes 34 of the original
station points, with different markings, i.e. a drilled hole in rock, iron cross, cairns, or
built obelisks.

Properties submitted on the Tentative List

Daugavpils Fortress
Daugavpils fortress is stylistically monolithic Classicism style ensemble, reflecting the
urban construction ideas of the time. Monumental fortification system consists of
ramparts, bastions, ravelins, dungeons with massive brick arches and other elements. The
construction of the fortress was started in 1810 (engineer J.F.Hekel). The foundation
forms a fortified town, where the territory is divided into quarters. There was an angular
square in the middle part and the Jesuit cathedral was located at one side (1737 - 1746)
vertical dominant of the ensemble (destroyed in 1944). A detail plan for the fortress was
drafted in 1816 after the design of architect I. Truzson. The plan determines functional
zones, differentiate streets and other details. The main buildings of the fortress are the
barracks, dwelling houses for officers, hospital, staff and commandant buildings,
engineers' and artillery arsenal as well as fortress gates and other edifices built in 1816 -
1830 after the design of architect A.E.Shtaubert. Daugavpils fortress is a significant
fortification building, the only one of this kind and scale in the Baltic states. It is well
maintained and gives an overall impression of the civil engineering achievements of the
time. The fortress influenced the development of quality military architecture all over the
Daugavpils city, developed as well in the classicism style on the iron-grid based urban
lay-out. In 1860 there the St. Petersburg- Warsov railway line and the railway bridge over
Daugava were completed. In that way the fortress lost its military significance and was
turned to the complex storage building and prison and partly still serves for those
purposes.

Jurmala town cultural and natural heritage

The town of Jurmala flattens to the coastline of Riga gulf for 30 km. Its structure consists
of three former towns (Riga Jurmala, Sloka and Kemeri), that were united in 1959. The
territory has intensively developed since the middle of the 19.century due to essential
natural values - coastline of Riga gulf and beach, pine tree wood between the sea and
river Lielupe, medical mud and mineral water found in the ponds of Kemeri. The
unification of these components has served as a basis for acknowledgement of Jurmala as
climatological and balneological resort, attractive relaxation and cure place. Till the
beginning of 2l.century the town has preserved approx. 4000 buildings belonging to the
historical construction of the town. The constructions include outstanding examples of
different styles - from the classicism of the 19th century till the modernism of the first
part of the 20th century. Most of the buildings are wooden summer-houses and residential
houses as well ass pa-resort public buildings. Since 1871 the main means of
transportation is train, remaining the station buildings of the late 19th century and early
20th century. The territory proposed for inclusion in the World Heritage Tentative list is
the Eastern part of the town -from the mouth of the river Lielupe till the territory of
former fishermen village in Dubulti that for the first time was mentioned in historical
sources in 16th century. Here the distance between the river Lielupe and the sea is 500
metres. Besides the significant natural values in the Eastern part of the town, there are
two territories of urban construction monuments of state significance and three territories
of urban construction monuments of local significance, as well as monuments of art and
history.

Livs' village "Kosrags"

Kosrags appeared at least in 1680 when its farm "Kukini" was mentioned in chronicles
for the first time. By 1770 there were already 4 old farms in Kosrags (Kine Diki, Kukini,
Tilmaci and Zoki). We know of two tenant-farner habitations that existed there in 1896,
and were joined by another 7 habitations after 1905. The village was populated by Livs -
a small ethnos that belongs to Balto-Finns and speaks an ancient Finno-Ugrish language.
Little by little thay assimilated with Latvians who entered the village gradually.The
houses in the village were built rather densely along the two roads:
1) the old littoral road connecting all 16 Livs' fishermen villages at that time:

2) the fishermen s road leading from the littoral road - it connected the villages with the
working place near the sea. These roads have preserved their ancient shape till the present
day.

Abava Valley
The territory was developed along the historical road form Riga to Prussia and Northern
Germany, traced through the Abava Valley.

Many cultural and historical monuments, located along the river and valleys of its
tributaries the lmula and the Amula, are the evidence of history of the Latvia. Within this
territory there are eight hillforts with settlements, nine ancient burial sites, five ancient
pagan cult sites, two medieval castles, two historical town centres, several estate centres
and monuments of architecture and art.

Concentration of cultural and historical monuments in the Abava Valley and its vicinity
gives proof of the particular attractiveness of this and other surrounding objects of nature.
Many of nature objects are under State protection. Along with the Abava Valley itself,
which is a complex restricted area of nature, in the Abava Valley's vicinity there are 16
objects of nature under protection of State. Among them such favourite tourist sites as
Devil's Stone, Devil's Cave and Chambers of Mara (Latvian pagan Goddess), at the same
time historical monuments, should be mentioned, as well as five rocks, seven rapids and
three historical estate parks. There are also more than 20 old tree under State protection
there.

The Abava valley and tributary valleys and towns- Kandava and Sabile as well the village
Renda constitute the landscape spatial structure of the territory. The most attractive part
of the Abava Valley is the Kandava - Sabile section where open agricultural landscape
prevails; yet the forests are covering the steep slopes of the valley.

The dimensional structure of the scenery has formed when the dwelling and agricultural
areas gradually enlarged. As a result the functional types of scenery originate - urbanised
(towns, suburbs, densely populated regions), rural sceneries and sceneries of woods and
forests. When the significance of separate roads enlarged, specific linear sceneries
appeared which are closely connected with the roads.

In 20 June 1996 the Republic of Latvia Cabinet of Ministers adopted Regulations "On the
specially protected cultural territory "The Abava Valley".

Kuldiga Old City in the Primeval Hollow of the River Venta

Historically the river Venta and Venta falls had been significant factors in developing
Kuldiga town. The following heritage objects are geographically connected with the
valley of the river Venta: Old Kuldiga castle mound, Kuldiga Castle, Venta channel.
Old Kuldiga castle mound is located on the left bank of the river Venta below Venta falls
by the estuary of Old Kuldiga nullah in the river Venta. The natural watercourses
protected the biggest castle mound of Latvia from three sides. The castle mound and the
ancient town occupied in total more than 1 ha big area. There was Old Kuldiga town with
an area of about 10 ha behind the southwest wall and ditch. In 1355 the citizens of the
ancient town had to move closer to the newly built stone castle built by the knights in the
territory of the present town. There are several legends (about underground passages,
copper pendants) and tales (events described in 10th century about the Cours King's
Dorno brave resistance to the attack led by Danish Viking Hedding's son Frodi) about the
castle mound. This castle mound is a heritage monument of national importance.