City of Liepaja
Ice-free harbor that made empires fight for it. Tsar Alexander III's naval base (1890-1906) became a Soviet submarine facility. 30,000 troops left in 1994.
Liepaja exists because the Baltic Sea doesn't freeze here. This ice-free harbor made it strategic for every empire that controlled it—and especially valuable to Russia, whose other Baltic ports froze solid each winter.
Tsar Alexander III built Karosta ("Naval Port") between 1890 and 1906, positioning the fleet just 60 km from the German Empire. The complex was designed for 140 warships and 30 submarines, with its own power station, churches, schools, and housing for military families. The Tsar reportedly visited once. His architects built him a palace anyway.
The Soviets inherited and expanded the base. By the 1980s, Karosta housed 30,000 military personnel, 16 submarines, and nuclear weapon deposits. The entire district was closed to civilians—even Liepaja residents couldn't enter. When the last Russian soldiers departed in 1994, they left behind a third of the city's area: barracks, bunkers, the Orthodox Naval Cathedral, and a landscape now crumbling into the sea.
Today Karosta attracts tourists and artists drawn to sublime decay. By 2026, Liepaja must decide whether the ruins are heritage worth preserving or infrastructure waiting to collapse. The ice-free harbor remains; the empire it served does not.