Kuldīga

Kuldīga is a small and attractive town that has always been admired and praised by poets and painters. The city centre, which developed in the 17th and 18th centuries, has still preserved the old wooden buildings which form small and narrow streets.

Pleasant park with sculptures around the ruins of the castle. Sculptures by Latvian sculptor Līvija Rezevska, an Honorary Citizen of Kuldīga. Most of them were made during Soviet era.

Wooden architecture, second part of 1630s, red-tile roof, splendid weather-vane, bridge of Venice of Kuldīga, lodging.

In Kuldiga Castle Park, on the site of the old castle. Only fragments of the castle remain. Interesting snapshot to life in the mansion in the beginning of the 20th century. Museum also has a wide playing cards collection!

At 164 m, it is the longest road bridge of this kind in Europe. It was built in 1874 according to 19th-century standards: 500 feet long and 26 feet wide (152 m by 8 m), allowing two carriages to pass each other. It consists of seven spans of brick vaults. Two of the spans were blown up during World War I, and rebuilt in concrete, rather than brick, in 1926.

This 240-m-wide waterfall is the widest in Europe. It is easily viewed from the brick bridge, 200 m downstream. Its 2-m height is not impressive when viewed from the bridge – you have to get down on the river bank to appreciate its height. The naturally formed waterfall is an obstacle for spawning fish in the spring and is associated with a number of legends and historic events. In medieval times, due to Duke Jacob’s invented devices for catching jumping fish in the air (on the waterfall) Kuldīga was considered the place "where salmon were caught in the air". Flying fish shows (salmon jumping up over the waterfall) attract visitors to the town in spring time. If you visit Kuldīga in summer, take a swim in waterfall and get a "free massage" under the waterfall as many locals do!

This small tributary of the Venta runs through the old town, right alongside the walls of many buildings, which is why Kuldīga has been called the Venice of Latvia. The buildings of the town centre were constructed as a suburb to Kuldīga Castle. In 1701, during the Great Northern War, the Swedish army invaded Kuldīga Castle and in 1709 it became uninhabitable, but in the 19th-century the castle ruins were relocated.

Highest waterfall in Latvia, 4.5 m high, the first paper mill in Kurzeme, dam, view over the River Venta. A dam was built here in the 17th century to use the stream to operate the first paper mill in Kurzeme. The waterfall is artificial.