Alsunga is a village in Alsunga Municipality

Alsunga municipality

Alsunga municipality is a municipality in the historical region of Courland in Latvia. The municipality was formed in 2009 from Alsunga Parish, the administrative centre being Alsunga. The municipality consists of the following villages and settlements: Alsunga, Almāle, Balande, Dienvidstacija,...

, Latvia

Latvia

Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...

. Alsunga is the center of the Suiti people - a small Catholic community in the Lutheran western part of Latvia. There are approximately 940 inhabitants in Alsunga.

Alsunga was first mentioned in 1230, as an old settlement of Curonians

Curonians

The Curonians or Kurs were a Baltic tribe living on the shores of the Baltic sea in what are now the western parts of Latvia and Lithuania from the 5th to the 16th centuries, when they merged with other Baltic tribes. They gave their name to the region of Courland , and they spoke the Old...

. In 1372, a castle was built for the vogt

Vogt

A Vogt ; plural Vögte; Dutch voogd; Danish foged; ; ultimately from Latin [ad]vocatus) in the Holy Roman Empire was the German title of a reeve or advocate, an overlord exerting guardianship or military protection as well as secular justice...

 of Kuldīga

Kuldiga

Kuldīga is a town in western Latvia. It is the center of Kuldīga municipality with a population of approximately 13,500.Kuldīga was first mentioned in 1242. It joined the Hanseatic League in 1368...

 komtur

Komtur

Komtur was a rank within military orders, especially the Teutonic Knights. In the State of the Teutonic Order, the Komtur was the commander of a basic administrative division called Kommende . A Komtur was responsible for the alimentation of the Knights by the yield from the local estates, he...

. In 1561 Alsunga became the part of the predominantly Lutheran Duchy of Courland and Semigallia

Duchy of Courland and Semigallia

The Duchy of Courland and Semigallia is the name of a duchy in the Baltic region that existed from 1562 to 1569 as a vassal state of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and from 1569...

. In 1567 the Saint Michael

Michael (archangel)

Michael , Micha'el or Mîkhā'ēl; , Mikhaḗl; or Míchaël; , Mīkhā'īl) is an archangel in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic teachings. Roman Catholics, Anglicans, and Lutherans refer to him as Saint Michael the Archangel and also simply as Saint Michael...

 church was built. In 1623 the local land owner, Johan Ulrich fon Schwerin, in order to marry a Polish court lady Barbara Konarska, agreed to become Catholic. After the marriage he lived in Lithuania and Poland until 1632, when he returned to Alsunga after his father's death. In 1634 Johan Ulrich invited Jesuits to establish a mission in Alsunga to help him transfer all his peasants to Catholic faith.

On October 1, 2009 the Suiti cultural space was included in the UNESCO

UNESCO

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...

 List of Intangible Cultural Heritage

Intangible Cultural Heritage

The concept of intangible cultural heritage emerged in the 1990s, as a counterpart to the World Heritage that focuses mainly on tangible aspects of culture...

in Need of Urgent Safeguarding.