Ventspils

Ventspils is a working port at the mouth of the Venta that handled a large volume of oil transit through the 1990s and 2000s, and the municipality spent the revenue conspicuously on public space: flower planting on a scale unusual anywhere, a long blue-flag beach with a promenade, a narrow-gauge park railway, a seaside open-air museum with fishermen's buildings and boats, playgrounds, and a collection of painted cow sculptures around the town that began with a public art parade and stayed. The medieval Livonian Order castle, one of the best-preserved in the Baltics, holds a museum. The port and the old town coexist without much overlap.

History

The name means "castle on the Venta", after the Livonian Order castle the town grew around; Ventspils received its charter in 1314 and became an important Hanseatic trading town, and in the Duchy of Courland it was a shipbuilding centre from which the duke's ships sailed to Gambia and Tobago (Wikipedia, Ventspils).

What to look for

• The Order castle - the well-preserved medieval castle and museum.
• The beach and promenade - the long blue-flag strand and its walkways.
• The cow sculptures - the painted figures around the town.
• The open-air museum - the fishermen's buildings and the park railway.

When to go

May to September for the beach and the outdoor attractions; most of what the town offers is seasonal. The castle museum works year round. Summer weekends fill the beach and the parks.

Good to know

The town is tidy to the point of being manicured and lacks the texture of older Latvian towns. Most attractions are seasonal. The port dominates part of the waterfront. It is a long drive from Riga.

Nearby

Uzava lighthouse lies south; the Livonian coast is north.

Key facts