Talsi Municipality
Nine hills, two lakes, Curonian roots from the 10th century. Crusaders built a castle (1231); Duke Jacob's Courland ruled until Russia absorbed it (1795).
Talsi rises on nine hills around two lakes—a topography that made it defensible long before crusaders arrived. Archaeological evidence shows settlements here from the 10th century, when Curonians (a pagan Baltic tribe) controlled western Latvia. The German Brethren of the Sword subdued and converted them in the early 13th century.
The town was formally established in 1231, with a castle following in the late 13th century. When the Livonian Confederation collapsed in the 1560s, Talsi passed to the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia—the improbable Baltic state that colonized Caribbean islands under Duke Jacob. From 1795, the Russian Empire absorbed everything.
Today Talsi (population ~11,000) is an administrative center for a municipality spanning much of western Courland. The region's character remains distinctly Kurish: fishing villages along the Baltic coast, forests inland, and towns built on defensible hills. Talsi is 94 km from Riga—close enough for economic integration, far enough to maintain separate identity.
By 2026, Talsi's future depends on whether rural Courland can retain population or continues hemorrhaging young people to Riga. The nine hills remain. The question is who will live on them.