The Old Town · 2 min read

Why Kuldīga’s Old Town Is on the UNESCO List

Inscribed in 2023, and not for one landmark. For a whole town that never got rebuilt.

In 2023 the old town of Kuldīga was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list. It didn’t get in on one building. It got in because the whole town survived: the street plan, the scale, and above all the timber houses that most of the region lost to fire, war or redevelopment.

Walking it takes an afternoon at most. The centre is small and almost entirely low-rise, a mix of wooden houses and plastered façades from the 17th and 18th centuries, laid out along streets that still follow their original lines. Very little of it has been smoothed over for visitors, which is much of the charm. These are ordinary houses that people live in.

Carved door surrounds, hand-forged hinges, and window frames painted in colours nobody uses any more.

Start at the town hall square and let the side streets take you. The best details are small and easy to miss: carved door surrounds, hand-forged hinges, the way a wooden wall meets a stone footing, window frames painted in colours nobody uses any more.

Our four apartments are inside this area, in buildings of the same period. The beams and plank floors you sleep under are part of what the listing is about.

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