Daugavpils (LV)

FORTE CULTURA Station: Fortified Ideal City Daugavpils (LV)

Unique national monument of architecture and cultural history

Last completed bastion fortress in the world!

Daugavpils Fortress (Dünaburg, Dwinsk) is located on the banks of the Daugava River in south-east Latvia. It was built between 1810 and 1878 and is known as the fortified ideal city with an area of more than 2 square kilometres, is an impressive example of European military architecture. Today, it is considered the last completed bastioned fortress in the world.

As early as 1812, during the Napoleonic Wars, the unfinished fortress successfully repelled attacks by the Napoleonic army. However, the development of new explosive grenades around 1880 made this type of fortress technically inferior and significantly reduced its military effectiveness.

Until the First World War, garrisons of the Russian army with up to 6,000 members were stationed in the fortress town. During the Second World War, the fortress was used by the German army as a Jewish ghetto and a camp for Soviet prisoners of war. From the end of the war until 1994, a military aeronautical engineering school was located in the fortress.

Today, Daugavpils Fortress is home to 40 cultural monuments, museums and cultural institutions such as the Industrial design centre "Engineering Arsenal" as well as venues for festivals and events. The Mark Rothko Art Centre Daugavpils is the only place in Eastern Europe where you can familiarise yourself with original works by the world-famous painter Mark Rothko, a pioneer of abstract expressionism.

Discover the fortified ideal city of Daugavpils with FORTE CULTURA. For example at the annual historical re-enactment festival "Dinaburg 1812"The festival is known far beyond the borders of Latvia and attracts numerous historical actors and spectators to Daugavpils.