FORTRESS (CIETOKSNIS)

In 1577, Tsar Ivan the Terrible ordered the construction of the fortress in place of the castle. The present-day prison on the other side of the Daugava, which was part of the fortress complex, was converted into a concentration camp by the Nazis in 1942, where 30,000 Jews lost their lives. The Soviet army took it over again in 1944 and occupied it until 1994. Today, around a hundred people live in the fortress. This architecturally fascinating monument is the only preserved fortress from the second half of the ^19th century in Northern Europe.