Ventspils is a state city in northwestern Latvia in the historical Courland region of Latvia, and is the sixth largest city in the country.
Aerial view with the Ventspils Castle and port
Wehrmacht soldiers and German civilians fleeing advance of Red Army, 1944
Port of Ventspils
Theatre House "Jūras Vārti"
Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east, Belarus to the southeast, and shares a maritime border with Sweden to the west. Latvia covers an area of 64,589 km2 (24,938 sq mi), with a population of 1.9 million. The country has a temperate seasonal climate. Its capital and largest city is Riga. Latvians belong to the ethnolinguistic group of the Balts and speak Latvian, one of the only two surviving Baltic languages, a branch of the Indo-European language family. Russians are the most prominent minority in the country, at almost a quarter of the population.
Turaida Castle near Sigulda, built in 1214 under Albert of Riga
Latvians national rally in Dundaga in 1905
Jānis Čakste (1859–1927), the first president of Latvia
Red Army troops enter Riga (1940).