Grobina Viking Settlement

Grobina was Seeburg, a settlement recorded in the ninth-century Life of Saint Ansgar and confirmed by excavation as a Scandinavian colony on the eastern Baltic from around the seventh century, with cemeteries at Priediens, Porani and Smukumi holding several thousand burials of Gotlandic and Swedish type, picture stones, and a fortified settlement on the Alande river. It is one of the earliest and largest Scandinavian settlements outside Scandinavia and is on Latvia's tentative World Heritage list. What is visible today is the hill fort mound, the burial fields as low mounds in fields and woodland, the medieval Order castle ruins in the town, and a small museum interpreting the finds.

What you actually see

• The burial mounds - the low grave fields in woodland and pasture.
• The hill fort - the settlement mound on the Alande.
• The Order castle - the later medieval ruins in the town.
• The museum - the interpretation of the Scandinavian finds.

When to go

May to September for the walking and the fields; grass is high in summer and the mounds are clearer in spring and autumn. The museum keeps limited hours.

Honest expectations

The mounds are low and unimpressive on the ground; the significance is archaeological rather than visual. Finds are largely in museums elsewhere. Interpretation on site is limited. The town is small.

Nearby

Liepaja lies west; Pavilosta is north up the coast.