Kuldīga

Kuldīga stands on the Venta, near a broad rapid and the meeting of river and land routes through Courland. An older Curonian settlement lay downstream, while the Livonian Order began a castle at the ford in 1242. The town known as Goldingen grew beside it, joining the Hanseatic League and receiving a weekly market privilege in 1439. The little Alekšupīte runs past the houses of its old centre.

After the creation of the Duchy of Courland, Duke Gotthard Kettler chose the former order castle as a residence. His son Wilhelm governed the western part of the duchy from Kuldīga, making the town a ducal capital. Tolls on goods crossing the Venta bridge supported local trade, but in 1615 a flood destroyed the bridge and a great fire consumed much of the wooden town. Rebuilding shifted its centre to a new market square, where wealthy merchants raised their houses around a new town hall.