Dobele

Dobele lies near the center of Latvia on the Bērze, in the historic region of Semigallia. A German document of 1254 records the name as Dubelene or Dubelone, forms probably meaning a populated place in a hollow or dimple. At that time the site was represented by a wooden fortress. During the Semigallian War of Independence from 1279 to 1290, the last phase of the Northern Crusades in Latvia, that stronghold was destroyed.

A new stone castle was erected on the site in 1335, and a small settlement gathered around it. The original church followed in 1495, while the fortress gradually became a trading post. Its position on the Bērze gave the community a link through the surrounding rural district, and the ruined castle still marks the point from which the later town grew.

The seventeenth century brought another economic phase under Duke Jacob Kettler of Courland. A watermill, sawmill, cardigan mill and vinegar works were added during his rule. These enterprises joined river power and local production to the castle's older commercial function. Dobele later became part of a settled market network and received town rights. Its layered landscape therefore moves from a contested crusading-era stronghold to a manufacturing and trading community, with the Bērze and the castle ruins preserving the continuity.