Liepaja guide

Liepaja city guide

This city in south-western part of Latvia on the Baltic sea is the country’s largest city after Riga and Daugavpils and a main port. The nick name of Liepaja is ‘the city where the wind is born’ due to the strong breeze coming in from the Baltic Sea. Despite the wind Liepaja can be a very pleasant city to spend summer holidays. Because of the maritime climate winters are usually quite mild. Liepaja was in the beginning of the 19th century a renowned health resort and a very popular place with aristocrats from Europe and Russia including the Russian tsar and his family who paid many visits to Liepaja. Latvia is famous for its musical tradition and Liepaja has always been considered as the music capital of the country. The open-air concert stage Pūt, vējiņi! (Blow, wind, blow!) in the big park dates back form the early sixties and has been the venue for many concerts and musical events. The local festival ‘Liepājas Dzintars’ (Amber of Liepaja) was even considered the oldest rock festival of the former Soviet Union. The festival presents bands from the Baltic countries as well as international acts. The concert stage is located in Jūrmala Park (Seaside Park) which is one the city’s biggest attractions. Being 3 km long and comprising a total area of 70 ha, it is one of the largest planted parks in Latvia. There you can also find the country’s largest drums, one of the city’s art objects demonstrating Liepaja is the music capital of Latvia. Another big yearly musical event in Liepaja is the Baltic Beach Party which has a stage raised up on the beach and the performing rock band attract a lot of visitors. In the era of classical music the Organ Music festival and Piano Stars festival are noteworthy. Beautiful spots in Liepaja are the Rose square, the Swan Pond, Peter The Great house (the oldest house in Liepaja) and the in beautiful Jugendstil designed Graudu 45. Karosta (the former military base from Tsarist and Soviet periods) attracts a lot of visitors has well. Some churches worth to visit are the St. Anna's Protestant Church, the St. Joseph's Catholic Cathedral and the St. Nicholas Orthodox Naval Cathedral.


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