The Waterfall · 2 min read

Ventas Rumba, the Widest Waterfall in Europe

It isn’t tall. That’s sort of the point. The Venta gives up its whole width at once instead.

Most waterfalls get measured by how far the water drops. Ventas Rumba gets measured the other way round. The ledge runs about 240 metres from bank to bank, and in the spring flood the river spreads wider still, which makes it the widest waterfall in Europe. The drop itself is small, somewhere between 1.8 and 2.2 metres depending on how high the river is.

The shelf is shallow and very wide, and that’s the whole reason to go and stand at it. In low summer water you can walk out onto the dolomite and see the ledge the whole river is pouring over. After heavy rain, or in the spring melt, it all disappears under one sheet of brown water and you can hear it from the old town.

The town became known as the place where salmon were caught in the air.

The falls also gave Kuldīga its strangest bit of history. Fish heading upstream have to jump the ledge, and for centuries people just waited at the top with baskets and nets. The town became known as the place where salmon were caught in the air. Nobody does that now, but the leap is still there. In spring you can watch fish throwing themselves at the step.

It’s a few minutes on foot from the apartments. Early morning is the quietest, and the low light comes from behind the falls.

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