For many, Kuldīga is Latvia's most charming town: a gem of wood and brick on the banks of the Venta River, with cobbled streets, colourful little 17th- and 18th-century houses and a frozen-in-time feel that, in 2023, earned it a place on the UNESCO World Heritage list. It was the capital of the Duchy of Courland, and you can still sense its stately past on every corner.
Its great natural attraction is the Ventas rumba, the widest waterfall in Europe: 249 metres wide and barely a couple of metres high, a waterfall that's spectacular for its sheer breadth and that, in spring and autumn, fills with salmon and trout leaping upstream. Beside it, the brick bridge from 1874 crosses the river; it's one of the longest of its kind in Europe and an inseparable part of the town's postcard image.
This guide explores Kuldīga with a practical eye: what to see at the waterfall, the bridge and the historic centre, how much the Riežupe sand caves cost, how to get there by bus from Riga, when to come for the summer festivals or the salmon run, and how to combine it with Ventspils and Liepāja on a west coast route. It's a must-stop in the Baltics, peaceful and photogenic.
Kuldīga was born in 1242, when the Livonian branch of the Teutonic Order received permission from the papal legate William of Modena to build a castle above the Venta River and protect the advance of Christendom; the German settlement was called Goldingen. In 1368 it joined the Hanseatic League thanks to its river port with access to the Baltic, and it enjoyed its golden age in the 17th century: between 1596 and 1616 it was the capital of the Duchy of Courland under Gotthard Kettler, and later it prospered under Duke Jacob, who promoted shipyards, factories and trade. Wars, fires and the shift of power to Jelgava and Mitau gradually left it on the sidelines, and that very stillness kept its wooden old town intact, today a World Heritage Site. We cover all of this on our history page.
Read the full history ↓The old Courland of the Curonians and of the duchy that held colonies in Tobago and Gambia, with ports, dunes and the coast where the Livonian language is dying out.
Read the history of Kurzeme: the west and its beaches →A local guide tells you in half an hour what no sign at the site will ever explain. We look ours up on Civitatis: guided in Spanish and booked online with no fuss. They have 11 activities in Riga. And there are free tours here: you book without paying and tip the guide whatever you think at the end, so trying one costs you nothing. Have a look below: tap any of them to see them all.
They depart from Riga, 130 km away. If you book from this link we earn a commission and you pay no more.
No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Kuldīga's story begins with the Baltic Crusade, the military and religious campaign through which, in the early 13th century, the Germans conquered the pagan peoples of the eastern Baltic coast and converted them to Christianity by force. In 1242, the papal legate William of Modena authorised the Livonian branch of the Teutonic Order to build a stone castle on the Venta River, in the lands of the Curonians, to secure Christian rule over the region. That castle, and the settlement that grew up around it, were given the German name Goldingen.
The Curonians, or kurši in Latvian, were the Baltic people who gave their name to Kurzeme (Courland). They were famous sailors and warriors who had held out against Vikings and crusaders for centuries. Their final defeat in the 13th century opened the door to German colonisation. Goldingen became one of the Order's strongholds in the west. Its castle overlooked the ford on the Venta, right where the river forms the wide waterfall we now call Ventas rumba.
The location was ideal. Boats couldn't get past the waterfall, so goods had to be unloaded and carried overland, and whoever controlled the crossing controlled trade on the river. That economic logic was the basis of the medieval town's prosperity, and Goldingen soon turned its eyes to the great trading network of northern Europe.
In 1368, Goldingen joined the Hanseatic League, the powerful network of merchant cities that dominated trade on the North Sea and the Baltic, from Novgorod to London. For an inland town in Courland, joining the Hansa was a big step up: it meant trade links, mutual protection and access to the major markets. The Venta River reaches the Baltic at Ventspils (Windau), which made Goldingen a river port able to ship grain, timber, wax, honey and furs to the rest of Europe.
The Hanseatic town that took shape below the castle already had the layout we recognise today. It had narrow, slightly irregular streets, a market square, the parish church (today's St Catherine's Church, whose origins go back to this period) and the houses of merchants and craftsmen. Under the Livonian Order, Goldingen spent the late Middle Ages as a prosperous, well-connected town.
That balance broke down in the 16th century. The Protestant Reformation undermined the Order's religious legitimacy. Then the long, devastating Livonian War (1558-1583), set off by the invasion of Tsar Ivan IV 'the Terrible', tore the old monastic military state apart. In 1561, the Livonian Order was dissolved. Many other towns were left in ruins, but Courland found a political way out, and it opened Goldingen's most brilliant era.
The Duchy of Courland and Semigallia was born in 1561 from the dissolution of the Livonian Order. It was a vassal state of the King of Poland-Lithuania, ruled by the last Livonian master, Gotthard Kettler, who now became duke. Between 1596 and 1616, Goldingen (Kuldīga) was one of the duchy's capitals and main residences. The court life of the early Kettlers centred on its castle and church, and being the ducal seat brought the town great prestige.
Its finest hour came under Duke Jacob (Jakob Kettler, who ruled from 1642 to 1682), one of the most remarkable figures in Baltic history. Jacob was baptised and married in St Catherine's Church in Kuldīga. He was an ambitious mercantilist ruler. He backed shipyards that built ships for all of Europe, along with ironworks and saltpetre and brick factories. He turned his tiny duchy into a trading power that even held overseas colonies, on the island of Tobago in the Caribbean and in the Gambia in West Africa. Kuldīga, with its workshops and river port, was part of that productive boom.
It was the town's golden age. The bridge over the Venta, the mills, the factories and the wooden houses of merchants and craftsmen that we admire today all trace their roots to the prosperity of the 17th century. But the duchy's fortune was fragile. It depended on peace, and peace didn't last.
The Polish-Swedish War of the mid-17th century, and above all the Great Northern War (1700-1721), hit Courland hard. Swedish, Russian and Saxon armies crossed the duchy again and again, bringing looting, plague and famine. Duke Jacob was even captured by the Swedes. The trade network that had made the duchy famous fell apart, the colonies were lost and Kuldīga's economic energy faded.
In 1795, with the Third Partition of Poland, the Russian Empire annexed the Duchy of Courland. The region's administration was concentrated in Mitau (Jelgava), the new ducal capital, and later in the Empire's big cities. Kuldīga became a quiet provincial town, far from the railway lines and the industry that transformed Riga and Liepāja in the 19th century. That isolation looked like decline at the time, but in the long run it was a blessing: nobody tore down the old wooden houses to put up modern buildings.
Other cities were rebuilt again and again, but Kuldīga stood still, and its 17th- and 18th-century streets and buildings survived almost intact. The brick bridge across the Venta next to the waterfall was built in 1874, under the Russian Empire, and became another of the town's symbols. When the 20th century brought world wars and occupations, the old town survived once again.
For Kuldīga, as for all of Latvia, the 20th century was a time of dramatic upheaval. Latvia became independent in 1918, and the interwar years followed. Then came the first Soviet occupation in 1940 and the Nazi German occupation from 1941 to 1945. The Nazis murdered the local Jewish community, which had been an important part of Goldingen's commercial life. After that came a long period inside the Soviet Union, lasting until 1991, with its deportations and repression. The Kurzeme region was also where the last battles of the Second World War in mainland Europe were fought: the so-called 'Courland Pocket' held out until the German surrender in May 1945.
In Soviet times, Kuldīga remained a small, somewhat forgotten town, and once again that protected it. There were no large demolition plans and no apartment blocks to wipe out the centre. Its wooden old town, with the waterfall and the bridge, came to be valued for exactly what it was: a historic ensemble that had survived in exceptionally complete form. Soviet and Latvian filmmakers often used it as a period film set.
After Latvia regained independence in 1991, Kuldīga bet on its heritage. Years of careful restoration and work on its bid paid off in 2023, when UNESCO added the historic centre of Kuldīga to the World Heritage List. UNESCO recognised it as an outstanding example of a town from the time of the Duchy of Courland, with traditional wooden architecture. Today, old Goldingen is one of Latvia's tourist gems. Here the water of the Ventas rumba, the red brick of the bridge and the colourful little houses tell eight hundred years of history, no museum required.
