Ventspils is located on the Baltic Sea in the north of Latvia’s west coast and since the thirteenth century has been a city of sailors. From the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries it was member of the German Hanse and in the middle of the seventeenth century a shipyard was built for warships and merchant ships, which led to the prosperity of the city.

On the banks of the Venta River is the only castle of the Order Of The Princedom Of Kurzeme, built by the Livonian Order at the end of the thirteenth century.

The harbour has been well-developed and boasts a long history, from the Wenden Tribe and the Crusaders, right up to the present day. A trip around the harbour highlights the fact that Ventspils is the most important port in Latvia and from where oil from Siberia is loaded as well as chemical products and also wood and fish.

After the Northern War and a devastating plague, the city lay in ruins and the harbour, unused. However, following the extension of the harbour at the end of the nineteenth century, life returned. When, in 1904, a rail link was opened to Moscow and Rybinsk, the harbour became important once again.

In this region, people have always lived by the sea and the ice-free harbour gave rise to Ventspils’ deserved prosperity.