The incomparable slender hills and valleys of Courland, rich cultural history, well-preserved churches, and a whole bouquet of beautiful manor houses, including the largest one in Latvia and more! This is the first “Self-Drive Latvia” route that can be done with any car, but, as in all our routes, the taste of adventure and unique places of interest are included in abundance!
Courland is mighty and rich with its history, nature, and people!
This is one of the few of our routes that you can do with any car, so you just must go and experience it! Courland has lots of different treats to offer – manor houses, castles and palaces, churches, old windmills, incredible landscapes, incredibly old and massive trees, huge stones and more. In this region you will find the largest manor complex in Latvia – Nurmuiza, where extensive renovation works are taking place. We recommend climbing the almost 30-meter-high viewing tower on Kamparkalns, from which you can take in the scenery of the whole Talsi region.
We struggle to find another word for it than a wonder – the old linden tree that grows by the Sasmaka Manor. It measures almost 9 meters in circumference, which makes it the largest in Baltic States and it is at least 350 years old. I do not think many of you can imagine a stone that is more than 3 meters high and 26 meters in circumference – like a small mountain in the middle of a field. However, this is not nearly the end of it, a geological natural monument stretches along the banks of the Roja River for half a kilometre – a rock outcrop called Lurmanu cliffs. You will be able to feel the breath of the Bronze Age, in the place of Scandinavian and Viking ancient cemetery in the form of a boat made of large boulders and called the “Devil’s Boat”.
In Latvia, there is a well-known little train track with trains running on it in Gulbene, but it turns out there is one, even smaller, in the vicinity of Talsi, near the Arlava too. The owner, who built the train and the track himself with some help form friends and relatives, will be happy to take you for a ride on the wooden train on the 750-meter-long track. There used to be a narrow-gauge railway line Valdgale – Mersrags running past, not far from his property, which gave him the idea of building this little railway track. The former railway line’s station “Plavas” is not far, near the village Plavas. The station building is currently abandoned. If you are up for a challenge, you can try to find it!
Do not miss the lovely little church of Igene, it is one of the oldest sacred wooden buildings in Latvia. It is so valuable that it is included in the UNESCO list of architectural and historical monuments, so it is an international tourist attraction.
