Kraslava Municipality
On the Varangian-Byzantine trade route. The Plater family ruled for two centuries (1729-1918). First hospital in Latgale (1789). Now at a closed EU-Belarus frontier.
Krāslava straddles the Daugava at the point where Latgale meets Selonia—and where the river once connected the Baltic to the Black Sea. Timber from interior Latvia, Belarus, and Russia floated down to Riga on this route. The Varangian-to-Byzantine trade route passed through here in the Middle Ages.
The Plater family defined Krāslava for nearly two centuries. Count Jan Ludwik Plater bought the town in 1729, the same year King Augustus II of Poland visited. The "August Stone" still bears the Plater coat of arms and that date. In 1789, Countess Augustina Oginska Plater donated 100,000 gold pieces to build a hospital—the first medical institution in Latgale.
Catherine the Great separated Latgale from Poland in 1772, merging it with Vitebsk, Polotsk, and Mogilev into the Belarussian General Province. Krāslava's records can still be found in Belarus's national archives. At Piedruja, the first town entering Latvia from Belarus, the Dvina flows into the Daugava and begins its final course to the Baltic.
Today 35% of the population is ethnically Russian. By 2026, the Belarus border will matter more as EU-Belarus relations remain frozen—Krāslava sits at the edge of a closed frontier.