South Kurzeme Municipality
Latvia's largest municipality (3,591 km²). Courland Pocket battlefields where frontlines were destroyed (1944-45). 100+ km of Baltic coast including Latvia's westernmost point.
South Kurzeme is Latvia's largest municipality by area (3,591 km²) and one of its most scarred. The Courland Pocket—where 200,000 German soldiers held out until May 1945—left the frontline completely destroyed. Priekule, caught between hammer and anvil, emerged from the war as rubble.
The municipality wraps around Liepāja (Latvia's third-largest city) and stretches over 100 km of Baltic coastline. Cape Bernāti marks Latvia's westernmost point. Lake Pape lies near the Lithuanian border; Lake Liepāja is one of Latvia's largest. Erosion accelerates north of Liepāja where port breakwaters interrupt the natural sand drift.
Rucava, near the Lithuanian border, preserves local traditions alongside the Suiti and Livs. Priekule was first mentioned in 1483 as a fortified manor; it only became a town after the 1871 railway. In 1906, revolutionaries from the surrounding parishes were imprisoned in Priekule manor, tortured, and shot at the edge of the park.
The 2021 reform united eight former municipalities around a common geography: coastal dunes, lagoons, and the memory of what war destroys. By 2026, nature has reclaimed the battlefields. Whether people return is another matter.