Liepāja

Liepāja grew from the Livonian fishing village of Līva, first recorded in a treaty of 1253 between the bishop of Courland and the master of the Livonian Order. In the 15th century part of the trade route from Amsterdam to Moscow passed through its harbour. Duke Friedrich Kettler of Courland granted it town rights in 1625, and under Duke Jacob (1642–1681) it became one of the duchy's main ports, sending colonists overseas from 1637. A canal to the sea and a new port were built in 1697–1703, and houses on Kungu Street were visited by Tsar Peter I in 1697 and King Charles XII of Sweden in 1700.

Under Russian rule, railways to Kaunas in 1871 and to Romny in 1876 brought central Russian trade through the port; by 1900 seven per cent of Russian exports passed through Libau, and the population rose from 10,000 to over 100,000 in about sixty years. On the orders of Alexander III the city was fortified and a separate military port, Karosta, was dug in 1890–1906. In the early 20th century it was a main embarkation point for emigrants to the United States and Canada. In 1919 the Latvian Provisional Government took refuge here.

The Second World War devastated the city. German forces captured it in 1941, and the Jewish community of about 7,000 was almost entirely murdered, most in the dunes at Šķēde to the north; Liepāja then lay inside the Courland Pocket in 1944–45. In the Soviet decades it was a closed city with a vast naval base and its port shut to commercial traffic from 1967. The commercial port reopened in 1991, the last Russian troops left in 1994, and in 2022 Liepāja was chosen as European Capital of Culture for 2027.

Liepāja is known as Latvia's music capital and as the "city where the wind is born", the title of a song by Imants Kalniņš that has become the city's anthem. The Liepāja Symphony Orchestra, the oldest in the Baltic states, plays in the Great Amber Concert Hall, and from 1964 to 2006 the Liepājas Dzintars festival, the longest-running popular music festival in Latvia, was held in the Pūt, vējiņi concert garden. Summer Sound, the International Star Festival, VIA Baltica and an international organ music festival continue the tradition.

The Liepāja Theatre, founded in 1907, is the oldest Latvian professional theatre still in existence. The organ of Holy Trinity Cathedral, the altar of St Anne's Church of 1697 and the city's Art Nouveau streets are its artistic treasures, and the Liepāja Museum is the largest museum in Courland. In 2009 the city lost the race for European Capital of Culture 2014 to Riga; it won the title for 2027.

Karosta has become a magnet for artists and tourists drawn to its Soviet remains, ruined forts and seascapes. The city's identity is maritime, with memorials to sailors and fishermen lost at sea in Seaside Park, and a strong sporting tradition; FK Liepāja won the Latvian football championship in 2015.

About 67,400 people lived in Liepāja in 2022, when it was Latvia's third-largest city, and the population has been falling, by about 750 a year between 2012 and 2018. The city has the highest dependency ratio of Latvia's major cities, with many children and pensioners for every working-age adult. Many residents live in the Soviet-built districts of Dienvidrietumi, Ezerkrasts, Ziemeļu priekšpilsēta, Zaļā birze and Tosmare, or in the older streets of the centre.

The economy has struggled since the end of the Soviet planned economy. The steelworks of Liepājas Metalurgs went bankrupt in 2013, one of the largest economic disasters in modern Latvian history. The port, the special economic zone created in 1997, ship repair in the old Karosta harbour, and Latvia's largest naval flotilla, its main army supply centre and large ammunition stores now anchor the city's work.

The tram links the lakeside housing estates in the south-east with the centre and the north, and summer pulls residents to the beach and Seaside Park. Preparations for the European Capital of Culture year in 2027 are shaping the city's cultural life.

Liepāja eats the food of Kurzeme. Dried, smoked or lightly dried cod was part of the diet of the coastal Livonians and Curonians before German settlers arrived in the 13th century, and fish remains central: Peter's Market has a fish market in the basement of its indoor hall, and salted herring, siļķe, is eaten with boiled potatoes and cottage cheese.

Sklandrausis, the Kurzeme speciality, is a sweet tart of rye dough filled with mashed potato and carrot and seasoned with caraway; of Livonian origin, it received the EU's Traditional Speciality Guaranteed label in 2013, and it is sold in the market's inner pavilion. Dark rye bread, rupjmaize, made from coarse rye flour, malt and caraway, comes with every meal, and cottage cheese, biezpiens, is eaten with boiled potatoes, lightly salted herring, spring onions and sour cream.

Beer is the most consumed alcoholic drink in Latvia, and the city has craft beer bars alongside its cafeterias and bakeries. Kvass, brewed from fermented rye bread, remains popular, and at midsummer Jāņu siers, a fresh caraway cheese, is eaten with beer.