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Liepene, in the Ventspils District, was once home to a coast guard division. The facilities are now privately owned and offer accommodations to tourists.
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This battery is easiest to find if you walk on the beach, because one of its four positions is right there, rinsed by the waves of the sea. Other positions, including a telescope tower, are in the pine forest not far from the coast. The battery was installed in the 1940s, and you can see the Northern Forts from here.
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The Soviet Border Guard facility at Mērsrags was the start of the border regime zone. Absolutely nothing of the facility is left for perusal today.
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This is an abandoned facility that is no longer used. The coast guard facility is in the forest, around 600 metres from the sea. There is one building right on the shore.
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The bridge was built in 1906. Part of it was blown up during World War I and later restored. During the Soviet occupation, one needed special permits to cross the bridge. Military ships and other vessels used the canal, because one of the largest military bases in the USSR was sited here. In the summer of 2006, one month before the bridge’s centenary, a Georgian-flagged tanker, the Anna, rammed into the northern support structure of the bridge, and that destroyed the bridge’s turning part beyond recognition. The bridge was renovated and reopened in 2009. You can look at the bridge and cross it at any time.This is a unique engineering monument, and it is the only drawbridge of its kind in the Baltic States. It takes just five minutes to turn the two parts of the bridge.
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This unique territory covers more than 24,400 hectares, and the Soviet military used it as an aviation training centre. The history of the base dates back to 1951, when four kolkhozes were shut down, roads were closed, and several hundred farms and homes were simply moved elsewhere. A civilian presence at the base was restored only in 1993, when several new roads were installed. If you want to get a bird’s eye view of the base and its forests, you have to climb a high, manmade hillock from which commanders watched manoeuvres. We do not recommend that you wander off from the roads!
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These are the ruins of World War II fortifications near what is now the Ķegums hydroelectric power plant. One blockhouse was found on the left bank of the Daugava River, approximately one kilometre to the South-Southeast from the plant’s dam. A second is also on the left bank of the river, opposite the Rēzijas campground. It has slid down the abraded shore of the reservoir and is partly underwater. It is mostly accessible by boat.
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The Plāņciems missile base is in the forests of Bārta and is not easy to access. This special air defence facility is being dismantled for the purpose of obtaining building materials.
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In Soviet times, the border guards of Ventspils established a major complex of buildings, open areas and various objects. Most of these are no longer in use, and the area is not under guard.
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The military communications facilities at Pāvilosta are along the southern part of the town. The facilities are owned by the local government, and there is no information about their use at this time.
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The air defence radar facilities at the Liepāja airport in Cimdenieki are gone now, although the man-made terrain in the area remains interesting today.
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The border guard facility at Pāvilosta is closed to civilians at this time, because it is used by the Latvian Navy.
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The largest collection in Europe of Soviet aviation and military equipment is on the territory of the Rīga International Airport and is open to visitors. The collection was assembled over the course of 40 years.
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The norther part of the Liepāja fortress includes the so-called military port, which was opened to the public after the restoration of Latvia’s independence. The forts, defensive batteries, the Orthodox Sea Cathedral of St Nicholas, a water tower, a sports hall, the port’s prison, the northern breakwater, and the rotating bridge of Oskars Kalpaks are all interesting destinations. |
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The lighthouse at Akmeņrags supported maritime navigation in Soviet times. Today it is controlled by the Latvian Maritime Administration. The lighthouse is open for visitors.
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This exhibition has been assembled over the course of many years by its owner, Valdis Tumovs. He features war weapons, fragments of munitions, uniforms, everyday objects, military equipment such as a motorcycle, etc.
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During Soviet times, Vaiņode was the site of one of the Soviet Union’s largest military airfields in the Baltic States. During the period of Latvia’s independence, the country’s first dirigibles were based here. Eventually their hangars were dismantled and brought to Rīga, where they were used for the Rīga Central Market. They are still there today. Some of Latvia’s first gliders took off from Vaiņode. During the Soviet occupation, the airfield was home to an air defence and destroyer squadron, with 38 SU-27 “Flanker” destroyers on site. After the restoration of Latvia’s independence, the Vaiņode airfield was dismantled in part, and the big plates of concrete that covered the runways and the rest of the airfield were used to improve the Liepāja port. There are still 16 hangars at the airport, and 1,800 of the formerly 2,500 metres long runway are also still there. More information about the airfield can be found at the Vaiņode Regional Research Museum.
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In October 1948, nationalist partisans who opposed the Soviet regime built a 9x6 m bunker in the forests of Īle for themselves. Five months later, the KGB attacked the bunker. After five hours of gunfire, 15 partisans lay dead, and another nine were captured. The bunker has been restored in commemoration of this event, and it is open to visitors.
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The former military zone in this location is not in use at this time, and there is no specific information about what it was used for in the past. The territory is privately owned and is not open to visitors.
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The current Ventspils airport began its life as a military object. Today regular passenger flights to and from Rīga have been suspended, and the airport is only used for small planes.
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