Adazi Municipality
From 1492 battle site to model Soviet kolkhoz to Riga bedroom community. Camp Ādaži houses Latvia's largest military base. Population: 22,800.
Ādaži demonstrates the transformation from feudal battleground to Soviet showcase to anonymous suburb. The castle of Novum Molendinum has stood here since 1204. In 1492, the Battle of Neuermühlen decided who would rule Livonia—the Bishop of Riga surrendered overlordship to the Teutonic Order on this ground.
The Soviet transformation was more constructive. In the late 1960s, Ādaži became a model kolkhoz—fur breeding, plastic production, agricultural processing. Visitors from across the USSR and abroad came to observe what collectivization could achieve when well-managed. The kolkhoz leadership advocated industrial farming; the experiment worked, temporarily.
Today Ādaži is Riga's bedroom community, 25 km from the capital center. The Gauja (Latvia's longest river) flows through it. Camp Ādaži houses the largest Latvian military base—the training area dates to 1927, though the Soviet occupation built the modern installation. Population reached 22,800 by 2023. What the castle, the kolkhoz, and the military base share: Ādaži's value has always been proximity to Riga and control of the Gauja corridor.