Ovīši
During the period of the independent state of Latvia there were 51 farmsteads in Ovīši, now there are just 10. In some of them ancient buildings and the specific system of fences has been preserved. Ovīši lighthouse is the most important building there as this is the oldest preserved lighthouse in Latvia (built in 1814). It is 38 metres high and in good weather conditions its light can be seen from as far as 23 km in the sea. From the top of the lighthouse a nice view of the nearby landscape can be enjoyed.
Telephone in the lighthouse: +371 63600364, 26264616
Lūžņa
Lūžņa is a village that extends over a few kilometres on both coasts of the Lūžņa river. In year 1937 there were 36 houses and 2 boat berths. In the 1960-ies Lūžņa became a ship-building site. In Lūžņa cemetery the last person who knew the Western dialect of the Livonian language, Lizete Švanenberga was buried (1902 - 1987).
Miķeļtornis [Miķelis' Tower]
The current name (earlier
Pize, in the Livonian language
Pizā) was obtained by the village from the lighthouse built during the period of the Kaiser named
Mihailovskij majak, which was the name of the nephew of the old Kaiser Alexander II. Similar to Lūžņa this is a village that extends lengthwise. There is a Lutheran church that was built in 1893 to replace the old log church. In the village there is a lighthouse which has suffered several times and restored, however now it is the highest lighthouse in operation in Latvia and extends to 55.6 m above the sea level. There is a well preserved cemetery where in 1978 the monument to the Livonian poet Jānis Princis Senior was erected. There are permanent residents in just 8 houses there.
There is also Pize pub built in 1857 where the planning and structures characteristic of the pubs of the mid-1800-ies has been preserved. This is the only preserved pub in the Livonian villages.
Camping «Miķeļbāka», summer cafe, tel. +371 27884438, martins@mikelbaka.lv
Lielirbe
The village is located on both banks of the Irbe river (Dižirve, Īra) and extends to the length of 6 km up to its estuary to the sea. In 1939 the population of the village was around 300 and there were more than 70 houses. A little train connected the village to the district centre Ventspils, Dundaga and Stende and it was further possible to reach Riga from there.
At the estuary of the Irbe river there was the Livonian seaport. Small-scale ports started emerging in Kurzeme in the 14th - 15th century. At the end of the 19th century the small port of Lielirbe was an active centre for the trading and transportation of wood materials. At the end of the 19th century and in the beginning of the 20th century sailing vessels were built here. At that time sailing ships were built in almost all the Kurzeme coastline villages, however, most of them started sailing from Lielirbe. The seaside which is very silent now has been an active centre of the trading and transportation of wood materials at the end of the 19th century.
Sīkrags
This is among the oldest Livonian settlements that has been referred to as a village in documents as early as in 1387. In the 17th century a major small-scale port on the coast line of the Northern Kurzeme was established here, At the end of the century there were big warehouses of goods where 12,000 puhrs of rye were stored in 1690. This was also a «hotel» for seafarers. Sīkrags is described in the poems by Dundaga Priest J. Bankavs in 1721 where he says that ships coming from England, Holland and Lubeck were bringing coal, grains and various goods and that a warehouse needed to be built in Sīkrags for storing them. The small-scale ports of the Northern Kurzeme ceased to exist in the beginning of the 18th century (the North War, the economic and political decline of Kurzeme Dukedom). Later they were only used as fishermen's ports.
In the beginning of the 20th century the buildings of the village became more dense because small houses of fishermen and new farms were built.
The village is a national monument of town architecture, therefore in its central part the historical buildings, the buildings structure, the road network, the landscape, the characteristic lines etc. need to be preserved. The borders of the monument of town architecture are drawn along the borders of
Ķeļķi, Jaunklāvi, Kilasidami, Vīnamegi, Baznīckalns and
Vecvalki enclosing these houses and the territories among them.
Mazirbe
Earlier (in the beginning and in the middle of the 20th century) Mazirbe was a Livonian fishermen village and a shipping centre, the biggest Livonian settlement on Kurzeme seaside. In the 1930-ies the village experienced the economic upturn, the fishermen's cooperative built a fish processing shop. A traveller of that time says the following about Mazirbe: «Mazirbe is a big village where the activity of a new town can be felt.» Mazirbe village was also important during the first independent state of Latvia for the flourishing of the Livonian culture. It was here where in 1923 the Livonian civic organisation
Livonian Society was established and thanks to its efforts jointly with the support provided by related nations: Estonians, Finns and Hungarians, in 1938-1939 the
Livonian National House was built.
The tallest building in the village is
Mazirbe church built on a hillside and the priest's house near it, now
the Recollection Centre of the Lutheran Church (Telephone: +371 26391171)
is housed there. At the same place
Mazirbe plague stones are located, (a national culture monuments), the witnesses of the events during the period of the Great Plague (1710, 1711).
Now the life in Mazirbe is not as active as it used to be in the mid-20th century, however, the life in the village has not stopped - there is a boarding school and several guest houses, the former naval school building as well as the cemetery of fishermen's boats. Fishermen are engaged in coastline fishing. Every year on the first Saturday in August the Livonian festival is organised at the Livonian National House where related nations and friends from all over the world participate.
Košrags
Košrags is considered to be the newest Livonian seaside village, this is a fishermen's village formed in the 17th century and in existence as early as in the 1780-ies. In 1826 the population of Košrags was 78 persons, there were 4 farmers' families and 11 families without a farm. This was a settlement with quite dense constructions. The houses were located close to each other, their gardens were bordering with each other.
The little Košrags village was an important economic and culture centre at the Livonian seaside. In the middle of the 19th century there was the first Livonian school, at the end of the 19th century and in the first decades of the 20th century there was a windmill and a watermill, shipbuilders worked there. In spring time boats with Estonians from Saaremaa looking for a job arrived here. Until the 1st World War the inhabitants of the village maintained active contacts with the Estonians from Saaremaa. Didriķis Volganskis who was a boat-builder and a Livonian culture activist organised the construction of a port at Košrags in 1932. In 1938 a berth for the collection of sea wrack was built with the participation of D. Volganskis. During scientific expeditions the highest volume of the Livonian folklore was recorded at Košrags. Now there are 13 houses at Košrags, however there are permanent residents in just a few of them. The life becomes more active in summer when people from cities move to their summer houses.
Košrags village is a national town architecture monument. It cultural historical importance is also attested by the fact that Košrags was among the six culture monuments of Latvia which were candidates for the inclusion in the World Cultural Heritage Listing.
Pitrags
Pitrags has been first mentioned in historical documents in 1582. There are only 4 farmsteads in this list. A story about the creation of Pitrags says that four brothers from Saaremaa arrived there and built their houses:
Kurg, Tōriz, Sīm, Jōk (
Dzērves, Sumbri, Sīmi, Jāki). The above farmsteads are the oldest farmsteads at Pitrags. Moreover, according to documents it can be seen that several farmsteads of the village were inhabited by people from Saarema. In the «souls' audit» document dating back to 1826 there is a reference to eleven farmsteads with 190 inhabitants. In the middle of the 19th century a pub was opened in Pitrags and a few small farmsteads emerged, Pitrags is quite a compact village where in 1937 there were 12 old farmsteads and 38 fishermen's farms (mainly new farms). After the World War II 48 farmsteads were registered in the village.
At the seaside of Pitrags the remains of a breakwater can be seen. The breakwater was built in 1938 for the collection of sea wrack and improving the lean soil near the seaside. The Ministry of Agriculture had decided upon the construction of this breakwater within the framework of a large scale national plan, i.e. the economic improvements in Ventspils district.
In the centre of Pitrags there is the
Baptists’ preaching house built in 1902 and financed from the personal resources of the parish member, captain Dambergs.
At the shallows of Pitrags there are many sunken ships and the remains of old ships can be found at the seaside after storms.
Saunags
Saunags is a small seaside village situated between Pitrags and Vaide. In Piltene register of 1582/1583 there is a record regarding 8 farmsteads in Saunags village, and just 3 farmsteads are mentioned in the books of Dundaga manor in 1731:
Buncke Pritiz, Melcke Ans and
Walke Angeck. The fourth farmstead appeared in the next century - Krūmiņi (
Kruhming). There were 16-17 residents in each farmstead in 1826, the total population amounting to 60. The above farmsteads marked the central part of the village. Currently approximately 6 farmsteads are inhabited in winter, however, when people come to their summer cottages in summer there is active life in about 28 houses.
Vaide
From here there is the most convenient connection to Saarema.
According to the data of the population census of 1935 the population of Vaide was 106. There were 21 farmsteads in the village in 1939 and biggest of them were: «Lāži», «Lekši», «Vecroči», «Jaunroči». In the house «Lāži» of Vaide village, Nika Polmanis (1823) was born, he was the first educated Livonian and a teacher at Mazirbe parish school which was located at the time at the house «Žoki» in Košrags, and a sacristan at Kolka Lutheran church.
In the house
«Purvziedi» in Vaide there is a collection of antlers collected by the forester Edgars Hausmanis consisting of more than 550 antlers of which 350 are antlers of elks. Except a couple of antlers of roes, the items of the collection are not hunting trophies, they were found during the forester's survey rounds in the forest. There is also an exposition devoted to the protection of nature.
Accommodation, tel. +371 29395624, 63200179.
Kolka
The farthest North point of Kurzeme peninsula.
Kolkasrags (Cape Kolka) shallow stretches in the sea for six kilometres, the waves of the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Riga meet above it. During storms the height of waves here reaches 7 m. At the end of the shallow, on an artificial island there is
Kolka lighthouse.
Kolka was first mentioned in records as a settlement in 1387, it was the court judgement by Lubeck master Varendorf, under the name of «Domesnes» which was the oldest name for Kolka and was used in official documents until the beginning of the 20th century. The oldest name of Kolkasrags «Domesnes» was created by ancient Scandinavians and it means a «church horn» when it is translated. The site name Kolka got established in the 20th century. This name comes from the Estonian language and the Finnish language: Estonian «kolgas, kolk», Finnish «kolkka» – corner, nook. The church book of Irbe-Ģipka contains the records about 4 farmsteads in Kolka in 1770: «Krogi», «Ūši», «Vecvagari», «Kabriki» – the oldest farmstead of the village. In 1826 there were 9 inhabited places with 99 inhabitants. In 1896 there were 32 inhabited places with 392 inhabitants. Kolka started growing fast as from the middle of the 19th century when the economic operations became more active and the village became an important centre at the meeting point of the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Riga.
Kolka is the only Livonian seaside village, which has been developing during the last fifty years thanks to its specific geographic location. In the 1950-ies many residents of the seaside villages of the Baltic Sea where the military regimen established by the Soviet authorities prohibited the coastal fishing moved to Kolka. Kolka became the centre of the fishermen's collective farm. The population grew rapidly in the 1950-60-ies. New houses, a school and a national house, a kindergarden, fish processing plants were built. The fish processing plant of Kolka was praised as the best one in Latvia.
Melnsils
Melnsils is the village in the range of the Livonian seaside settlements in the Northern Kurzeem where Livonian still lived in the middle of the 20th century.
In the beginning of the 19th century there were six farmsteads and a pub in Melnsils, however, at the end of the 19th century there were as many as 63 farmsteads.
On the left bank of the Baķupīte river, on a high dune there has been the palace of the pirate Trommels. Ships used to stand waiting for the best wind at Melnsils to be able to pass the near
Kolkasrags (Cape Kolka). Trommels was robbing the ships and stored the valuables in the basement of his palace. At the banks of the Baķupīte river there are high dunes from which a nice view to Kolkasrags can be enjoyed.
Camping «Melnsils», tel. +371 28605606, info@melnsils.lv