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Kuldiga is a town
Town

A town is a type of human settlement ranging from a few to several thousand inhabitants, although it may be applied loosely even to huge metropolitan areas; the precise meaning varies between countries and is not always a matter of legal definition....
 in western Latvia
Latvia

Latvia The Latvians are a Baltic peoples culturally related to the Estonians and Lithuanians, with the Latvian language having many similarities with Lithuanian language, but not with the Estonian language....
. It is the center of Kuldigas County with a population of approximately 13,500.

Kuldiga was first mentioned in 1242. It joined the Hanseatic League
Hanseatic League

The Hanseatic League was an Military alliance of Trade cities and their guilds that established and maintained trade monopoly along the coast of Northern Europe, from the Baltic Sea to the North Sea and inland, during the Late Middle Ages and Early modern period ....
 in 1368. In the 17th century, Kuldiga (along with Jelgava
Jelgava

Jelgava is a city in central Latvia about 41 km southwest of Riga with 66,087 inhabitants . It is the largest town in Zemgale. Jelgava is known as the former capital of the Duchy of Courland, and was the capital of the Courland region until 1919....
 (Mitau) was one of the capitals of the Duchy of Courland
Courland

Courland is one of the cultural and historical regions of Latvia. The regions of Semigallia and Selonia are sometimes considered as part of Courland....
.

The main sight in Kuldiga is Ventas rumba, a 249-meter wide natural rapid
Rapid

File:Rapids.jpgFile:!downstream river1.jpgA rapid is a section of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep stream gradient causing an increase in water [velocity and turbulence....
 which is the widest in Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
.

of the largest buildings in Kuldiga (1905 street 6) known for its splendorous interior in marble with gilded details, is the Jewish synagogue.






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Kuldiga is a town
Town

A town is a type of human settlement ranging from a few to several thousand inhabitants, although it may be applied loosely even to huge metropolitan areas; the precise meaning varies between countries and is not always a matter of legal definition....
 in western Latvia
Latvia

Latvia The Latvians are a Baltic peoples culturally related to the Estonians and Lithuanians, with the Latvian language having many similarities with Lithuanian language, but not with the Estonian language....
. It is the center of Kuldigas County with a population of approximately 13,500.

Kuldiga was first mentioned in 1242. It joined the Hanseatic League
Hanseatic League

The Hanseatic League was an Military alliance of Trade cities and their guilds that established and maintained trade monopoly along the coast of Northern Europe, from the Baltic Sea to the North Sea and inland, during the Late Middle Ages and Early modern period ....
 in 1368. In the 17th century, Kuldiga (along with Jelgava
Jelgava

Jelgava is a city in central Latvia about 41 km southwest of Riga with 66,087 inhabitants . It is the largest town in Zemgale. Jelgava is known as the former capital of the Duchy of Courland, and was the capital of the Courland region until 1919....
 (Mitau) was one of the capitals of the Duchy of Courland
Courland

Courland is one of the cultural and historical regions of Latvia. The regions of Semigallia and Selonia are sometimes considered as part of Courland....
.

The main sight in Kuldiga is Ventas rumba, a 249-meter wide natural rapid
Rapid

File:Rapids.jpgFile:!downstream river1.jpgA rapid is a section of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep stream gradient causing an increase in water [velocity and turbulence....
 which is the widest in Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
.

Synagogue

One of the largest buildings in Kuldiga (1905 street 6) known for its splendorous interior in marble with gilded details, is the Jewish synagogue. Documents in ancient Hebrew describing the construction of the building in 1875 are located in the Kuldiga District Museum. It was built during the reign of the tsar Alexander II and was the centre of a vibrant Jewish community. The synagogue was part of a larger complex with an adjacent prayer house, the Jewish sepulchre, and Jewish school, which can still be seen today. The Jewish community had been active since the settlement in the duchy of Courtland in the 16th century. Most of the first immigrants came from north western German territories, but around the mid-17th century unrest in Poland caused an influx of Jews from that region. By the 18th century, the Jewish population of Kurzeme played an active role in the economic life of the province. In 1941 the synagogue became a trap when all of Kuldigas’ Jews were imprisoned in the synagogue and held there for several days by Nazis and Latvian sympathizers, before being divided into smaller groups and shot in the nearby forests. Shortly after the extermination of Jews, Germans set up food storage in the synagogue. Later during the first years of the Soviet Union a grain house was set up inside, and later abandoned for a couple of years. In 1958 the synagogue was transformed into the cinema Kurzeme. It contained 450 seats and a reading room. It remained a cinema until 2003, after the reinstatement of Latvian independence. In later years there was also a café and night club. In the present there are plans for of its transformation into the central library of Kuldiga.

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