An Englishman in Latvia
An Englishman in Latvia
On Kuldīga
On a bright weekend at the end of September, I went to Kuldīga. The town was buzzing with people, strolling the cobbled streets, sitting at cafes, walking down to the waterfall. The small electric tourist buses were full. Why? Kuldīga had been added to the UNESCO World Heritage list a few weeks beforehand. In tourism terms, that is a huge thing.
We will look at Kuldīga's journey to gain this designation. We will explore what you can see and do in Kuldīga. Come with me to Kuldīga, the small, unspoilt and beautifully preserved town in the west of Latvia.
Thanks for listening!
On Kuldīga
On a bright weekend at the end of September, I went to Kuldīga. The town was buzzing with people, strolling the cobbled streets, sitting at cafes, walking down to the waterfall. The small electric tourist buses were full. Why? Kuldīga had been added to the UNESCO World Heritage list a few weeks beforehand. In tourism terms, that is a huge thing.
We will look at Kuldīga's journey to gain this designation. We will explore what you can see and do in Kuldīga. Come with me to Kuldīga, the small, unspoilt and beautifully preserved town in the west of Latvia.
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A very brief history of Kuldīga
Kuldīga is an ancient town in Latvia's western region of Kurzeme with a good location at the crossroads of trade routes linking Prussian lands with Riga and Jelgava. It was first mentioned in 1242 when a Livonian Order of Knights castle was built on the River Venta's left bank. The foundation of the church of St. Catherine was laid in 1252. St. Catherine is the patron saint of Kuldīga. At that time, Kuldīga was known as Goldingen. It joined the Hanseatic League in 1368. The Dukes of Courland decided to use the castle as their residence, and the town’s economy grew from its trade with Riga and Jelgava by taxing goods across the bridge over the River Venta. In 1615, the bridge was destroyed by floods, which caused a massive loss of income to the town, and a fire ravaged the wooden buildings in the old town. Kuldīga’s annus horribilis, a terrible year! The town was rebuilt around a new town square. The wealthiest residents and merchants built their houses around this. In the second half of the 19th Century, industry started to develop with small factories built. The largest factory was “Vulkāns", which produced matches from 1878 to 2004. Other factories produced needles, soap, cigars, vodka, beer, and mineral water. Many new residential, municipal and public buildings were built in this period, including a new town hall, bridge across the Venta, German grammar school and the House of Latvian Society. The number of inhabitants doubled, reaching 13,000 by the First World War. It now has a population of about 10,000 people.
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What to see in Kuldīga - a two-hour tour
The small River Alekšupīte runs through the centre of Kuldīga old town, along the walls of the houses, which have a distinctive architecture. Old, often wooden, buildings in pastel colours with red-tiled roofs on narrow cobbled streets, with the river flowing alarmingly close along the walls of some houses. The buildings are preserved in their original state rather than being recreated. On many, you can see the plaster hiding the cracks; they all look like they could do with a coat of paint. But actually, that adds to the character of Kuldīga. A perfectly preserved location - as it was, not by modern-day aesthetic standards.
Kuldīga has lots of firsts. The old town built around a small river is the only remaining one in the Baltic States. A 4.2 metre-high waterfall on the River Alekšupīte is the highest in Latvia. The Venta Rapid, a 249-meter-wide natural waterfall, is the widest in Europe. Spanning the Venta is a brick bridge built in 1874, the longest bridge of this type in Europe. Has that whet your appetite to see Kuldīga?
The town square is where you start your tour. Baznicas iela 5 if you are using a map or satnav. Like many such squares, this is the heart of the town and a gathering place. The Town Hall looks over it. The square is still the location for many festivities and exhibitions. Small, open electric buses start their tours from here. These have good suspension, which is necessary on the cobbled streets. A good restaurant, Goldingen Room, is on the square. It serves excellent pizza and other dishes. You can sit outside and watch the world go slowly by or sit inside in the quirky industrial architecture. The tourist office with free maps is on the other side of the square.
By foot, see if you can find the oldest building in Kuldīga. It has a plaque on the wall, ‘1670’, and isn’t far from the square.
Walk towards the Castle Pond and Duke’s Gardens, the remains of the former castle and its grounds. When the castle existed, there used to be a moat connected to the River Alekšupīte and gardens that provided fruit and vegetables for the Dukes living there, including Duke Jakob. Over the years, the castle has been destroyed, the moat was filled in, and the gardens were reduced to pasture. However, the German grammar school located to the side of this area took over the maintenance of the pond and park. At the beginning of the 20th century, it became popular for ice skating and sledging in winter. The students of the school provided hot tea for the skaters. In 2010-11, Kuldīga Council renovated the pond and a stretch of old wall and added a fountain and sculptures.
Go up the steps at the end of the park and view the majestic Venta rapids from the high bank. Clock the length - 249 m, the widest in Europe. As dusk comes, the rapids are illuminated. That might be a long wait, depending on what time you are there!
Turn left and walk to the District Museum. This building is known locally as Bangerts’ Villa and is not to be confused with the up-market Bangerts’ Restaurant in the next-door building. On the first floor upstairs (the first floor for the English but the second floor for Latvians!), the rooms have been laid out as an apartment of a wealthy resident in the early 20th century. Lots of small things to explore. When I visited, a tourist went through the linen in the bedroom cupboard! The floor above that has an exhibition on the history of the town. It is a great little museum, and the staff will happily explain things in English. But please leave the linen alone. It isn’t a hotel!
Then, continue walking alongside the Venta with its cafes and restaurants until you come to the brick bridge. This was built in 1874 and, at the time, was the longest bridge in Europe at 164 m. It was made according to 19th-century standards – 500 feet long and 26 feet wide, thus allowing two carriages to pass each other. It consists of seven spans of brick vaults. Oh, and on midsummer, local people run naked over it. Strange tradition!
Cross the bridge and head down to the rapids. The Ventas rumba is a naturally formed waterfall and, at 249 m, is the widest in Europe. The sound is lovely. See if you can spot any salmon trying to jump the rapids. Spring is the best time for fish jumping. The waterfall is only about 2 metres high, so if you fancy a dip, it is relatively easy from the side you are now at.
Head back over the bridge, refreshed if you did dip in the Venta, then cross the road to the small river Alekšupīte’s waterfall. In the 17th century, Alekšupīte Waterfall was artificially created to power the first paper mill in Kurzeme. Oh, the locals have another race. This time, the competitors run along the bottom of the Alekšupīte river. Mad!
Very close to the waterfall is St. Catherine’s Church, the oldest place of worship in Kuldīga. It was initially built in 1252, although it has been rebuilt in a baroque style with plenty of wood carvings since then. St. Catherine is the patron saint of Kuldīga.
Walk back along Baznicas iela to Stafenhagen House. Forget the legend about King Charles of Sweden staying there and leaving a chest of clothes. It is simply not true. There is a beautiful built-in wooden cupboard (and a clothes chest that was added much more recently). But the best bit about this house is the kitchen. A square room at the back of the house. Look up, and it leads through the house in a funnel shape to the chimney on the roof. An open-fire hearth was used there for cooking and as the only way to heat the house.
Then, it is a short stroll back to the main square. Tour completed.
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The Jews in Kuldiga
Something that is not mentioned in any of the official guides is the history of the Jewish community in Kuldīga. I do not know why. In 1800, 658 Jewish merchants and artisans lived in the Kuldīga (Goldingen) district, which was 15% of the population. In approximately 1801, the first synagogue was built, and the first rabbi assumed office in 1826. By 1901, there were three private Jewish schools in the town: one for boys and the other two for girls. The languages of instruction at the school were German and Hebrew. At first, Kuldiga’s Jews earned a living through small-scale commerce. From the end of the 19th century, their economic situation improved, and the Jewish merchants sometimes supplanted the elite Baltic German business people. Jews built the flour mill and factories to manufacture matches and needles. By 1835, the total Jewish population was 2330, some 57% of the population. In the second half of the 19th century, many Latvians came to the town, and the Jewish community lost its majority status. With difficult economic and political times, Kuldiga's Jews began to emigrate, mainly to the USA and South Africa via England. By 1935, the Jewish population had declined to only 9% of the town's 7000 inhabitants because, during the First World War, the Jews were banished to the interior of Russia as suspected German sympathisers and many community buildings and Jewish houses were destroyed. After the First World War, about a third of the Jews slowly returned to the town. However, during the Second World War, the Soviet Russians liquidated Jewish public institutions. Some of the Jews of Kuldiga escaped to the interior of Russia. Those who remained were murdered by Latvian fascists in nearby forests. By 1942, Kuldiga’s Jews had been exterminated. This is a dark part of Latvia’s history, and I am surprised there is no official mention. Wikipedia and Jewish websites do tell the story of the Jews of Kuldīga. The former synagogue was one of the most significant buildings in Kuldīga. After the Jews were exterminated, the synagogue became a grain store, a cinema, then a nightclub after Independence was regained, and now a town library. It is listed among the ancient buildings on the Kuldīga town website as the ‘Art House and Library’, and the listing mentions that it was a former synagogue.
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The potato cultural field
It's a strange but rather interesting story.
On the bank of the Venta River at Pārventa Park, a potato field was planted in 2019 where cultural potatoes grew. The potato field represented the poetry volume “Kurzemīte” (Little Kurzeme) by Latvian poet and writer Imants Ziedonis and the fact that Duke Jakob introduced potatoes to the Duchy of Courland. While the potatoes were growing, they listened to the Potato Field Radio, which broadcasted poetry, plays, readings and music. People could also tune into the broadcasts. The potato varieties “Brasla” and “Magdelēna” were planted with white clover and sunflowers. A bee hive was placed in the middle of the potato field so that a person could lie down, listen to Potato Filed Radio and experience a life best known to bees and potatoes.
Unfortunately, something else also liked potatoes and culture. In the summer of 2021, Colorado beetles attacked the potato crop. The staff at the District Museum told me that the field would be developed into a cultural place. Kuldiga municipality confirmed that work was going ahead to build a watchtower on the site - I don’t think to spot beetles! I had a look, and a massive metal construction is being made. By the way, Kartupeļu Lauka Radio - Potato Field Radio - continues and has a regular podcast in Latvian to celebrate everything to do with Imants Ziedonis and other Kuldıga cultural people.
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UNICEF World Heritage status
On 17 September 2023, at the 45th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, which took place in Saudi Arabia, UNESCO decided to add Kuldīga to the World Heritage list. This was the culmination of 25 years of work. Jana Jākobsone, head of the Construction Department of Kuldīga municipality, led this work. She explained to Latvian Radio: "One part is scientific research in various aspects – architecture, urban planning, landscape, and the history of the Duchy of Courland; one part is practical research, in which we visualise and write how and what to do in traditional construction, as well as with renovation, and energy efficiency, and one part is the World Heritage nomination file, which summarises the work of the last twenty years.” You can read the nomination file on the municipality’s website, kuldiga.lv.
Kuldīga's restoration centre was set up as part of the UNESCO process to educate the public and involve people in restoration. I met Ilze Zariņa, head of the restoration department, there.
Me: Thank you for spending time to talk to me. What was the inspiration to apply for UNESCO World Heritage status for Kuldīga, I think 25 years ago?
Ilze: I've been working in Kuldīga for the municipality for 15 years, but as far as I know, historically, during the Soviet time, the government of Latvia appointed three historical city centres: Rīga, Cēsis and Kuldīga. So, during the Soviet time, it was said that those places had particular historical value and the places had to be protected. In Kuldīga they established a conservation centre with people with some skills that were maintaining the historical part of the town. There were clever architects working who also understood the special value and didn't want to improve the status and the situation of the old buildings, but they wanted to preserve as it is. I've been talking with one young entrepreneur who was restoring a house and he said that the architect made him preserve the angle of the old windows. He said that it’s necessary to have 90 degree angles to consider the character of the old buildings, that they might be shabby and on the right or left and it's not so important to make them straight.
Me: The UNESCO decision not so long ago was after lots of work. We’re in the restoration centre at the moment, and undoubtedly, the restoration centre did a lot of work in the lead-up to gaining the status of world heritage. What was that process like from your side? I know many people have been involved, but what was that process? Was it quite long? Lots of paperwork, or did UNESCO give directions as to what they wanted to see?
Ilze: So when we started to work on this nomination file, sure we had to consider the statements and the value criteria, but apart from that for us it was clear that wooden buildings and wooden building details have very special importance. It was clear that the traditions of how to work with the wood and joinery of the old buildings were created in interaction with different nationalities because if we look at the style, we can't say that it's a typical classicism style building or that it's a baroque style building. We see this impact of folk traditions, those craft traditions of working with wood and joinery, and then we see the impact of the architectural styles that were popular at that time in Europe and the rest of the world. Then, we analyse the building details like the door sets. We see that Kuldīga was for a long period not connected to the railways, which also means that electricity came rather late and electrical instruments came rather late. So it means that craftsmen were working with hand tools, and it also makes the character and style of the wooden building details different. Our centre has been responsible for protecting these things because nowadays people have limited financial possibilities and if they think about the maintenance of the building, they think that it is important that the roof is in good condition and also maybe they think about how to reduce heat loss but they don't pay too much attention to the details. One of the priorities of our centre is to protect all the details with particular artistic value that people don't maintain. Like a rather simple detail as window shutters. Historically it had high importance because of safety purposes. When you close the window shutters, nobody can interrupt your family life. Nowadays, there is no meaning for that anymore so people say I don't need those window shutters. I am not going to invest money. Then our centre is taking care because I think that if we remove those window shutters then somehow the look of the building and all the architecture looks different. The window shutters play an important role in the composition of all buildings and also the door sets and some entrances like verandas or other parts with a small artistic value. That's the things we take care of but in general I can add that Kuldīga is rather simple in architecture. If you look at Latgale or Jūrmala to compare then it's more sophisticated in other places and therefore I say that for Kuldīga it's even more important to preserve what we have here.
Me: There’s a difference in size as well. There's a lot of modern development in Jūrmala as well as repairing of the old wooden villas. That was a nice description of how you worked with residents to convince them and help them to maintain the original structures of the buildings. What about businesses?
Ilze: When we started our work we were not paying too much attention to who owns what building or some parts with special value but we were emphasising the value itself. We were not so much considering who is the owner. It happens that we help to restore doors for some families living there or even also for the businesses and then maybe those business people they could react faster because they they had more investment and they could they could pay for the work and get the result faster when our centre is helping. It's not like we want to renovate all the building - that’s what we don't do and for the businesses we are giving a lot of consultation. Starting from the joinery companies we explain how to do the works, what's the traditional method what is not the correct way, and explain why because nowadays those traditional crafts and skills are disappearing. Nowadays people build new houses according to different traditions and therefore that's so important to explain to people not to say don't do that but explain that if you do it in the traditional way what benefits you get. So I think for the businesses we play this consultancy. I would also like to add about the residents. They have a particular activity like maintenance of the wooden window frames because there's rather high tension and simple understanding that how to save heat is to have plastic windows. That’s not allowed according to our construction rules. As a response, we offer people that they can come to our workshop, we pay for all the materials and lend all the tools. We show them how to do the process. We have even created videos on the internet. You can go to YouTube and see what we expect people to do. They don't have to invest money, just their time. So they come to the workshop, we help them to bring the frames and everything and show the process and they maintain the windows. They can really improve the quality of the apartment or house first how it looks like and then also from from inside it looks nice and also it's not so noisy anymore because of the good fixation of the glass. They enjoy the process in that they meet each other, they communicate and they feel like guards of the town and have improved and done something themselves helps build the community. Then we also organise different smaller activities maybe more entertaining and educational like our centre invites families with children. We were celebrating Father's Day, where people could come and try these ancient tools and make wooden pearls, and they enjoyed the process because children like to do a lot of different practical things. They could paint something and then they could fix this linen oil putty in the frame, and they could cut the glass - imagine not cut the paper but cut the glass - and so they were really fascinated. We organise some activities where we explained that wood is a long-lasting material that's very green. Not to destroy and create something new, but we can maintain wooden details for long periods like centuries, and that's what we explain to people. Also we we give them different species of trees and and teach them how to recognise the fibre and also the smell just to enjoy the nature.
Me: On the 17th September in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia UNESCO made the decision that Kuldīga would be on the list of World Heritage Sites. Was there a big celebration in Kuldīga? Was there a party?
Ilze: not exactly on that day. It was actually a few days after we got to know the news. We went to a workshop in Norway together with the school in Zaļenieki that has a department of restoration, so we were still improving our knowledge and improving our skills. Because we think that okay, we got the status, but it's not the end, actually that's maybe even more the beginning of the process. So we also share our knowledge as our masters are so good we wanted to use traditional materials and just to tell about the restoration process in other places in Latvia and also internationally. We have good cooperation with Norway and our Latvian people go there and we work together. It was specially devoted for the use of traditional instruments so I think people really enjoyed the process. So our celebration was to get new knowledge.
Me: What next for Kuldīga on this journey? The whole UNESCO process is really a journey. What's the next big plans and the next big projects?
Ilze: We are thinking that we have to do scientific research of our door sets. So far we have renovated more than 45 different doors. You can see the pictures here or when you pass in the town. We want to create a catalogue. We want to study and research more about the ancient masters who were working on those doors. We want to research the history and then we also want to describe the process that we have done for 15 years. We think that the generation after us might be interested to know how we started and how we worked on the process. This is a continuity of those craft traditions that we find. It’s important that we pass the knowledge while there's still somebody who is interested in that.
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In conclusion, the inclusion of Kuldīga on the UNESCO World Heritage List means that the unique value of this beautifully preserved old town has been recognised and that Kuldīga has been marked on the world map as an important cultural heritage site.
Unlike some other sites of historical interest in Latvia, it does have the services to support tourists. Hotels and guest houses. Small electric tourist buses and guides one can hire. Plenty of restaurants and cafes of a high standard. Museums, sites and things to see and do. There are signs in Latvian and English all over town. There are plenty of toilets and small car parks. It was buzzing with people enjoying themselves when I visited. Go visit and see for yourself.
