Aizpute Historic Town

Aizpute is one of the oldest towns in Latvia, located on the right bank of the Tebra River. The oldest part of the town was situated between today’s Atmodas, Jāņa, and Katoļu streets, later expanding toward Jelgavas, Kalvenes, and Kuldīgas streets.

The historic center of Aizpute dates back to the 13th–19th centuries. The town was granted city rights in 1378.

In the 13th century, a castle of the Courland Bishopric’s cathedral chapter was built in Aizpute, which was known in German as Hasenpoth. Later, the Livonian Order also built a castle on the left bank of the Tebra River. As a result, Aizpute developed into a densely populated settlement along the then-navigable Tebra River, with a harbor established at its mouth in the Saka River. The harbor encouraged the growth of trade and crafts.

The town was chosen as the administrative center of the Piltene district in the 14th century and later served as the center of Aizpute county from 1819 to 1949, and subsequently as a district center. Even in the 1920s and 1930s, Aizpute remained a typical small town of petty traders and craftsmen.

Although the ancient town developed along the Tebra River, over time it gradually expanded away from the river. The access roads leading to the town center once converged at a triangular square; later, these roads evolved into streets and formed the town’s street network. Even today, Aizpute’s main streets extend outward in all directions from the old stone bridge over the Tebra River, defining the town’s layout.

The first houses were built along these early roads. Aizpute has preserved a compact historic low-rise built-up area, dominated by wooden buildings with gabled roofs, usually aligned parallel to the street. A prominent landmark in Aizpute’s cultural and historical landscape is St. John’s Lutheran Church, originally built in the 13th century on Church Hill, the site of a former Curonian hillfort.

Since 1998, Aizpute Old Town has been included in the State Register of Cultural Monuments of National Significance under No. 7437.