Ogre, Latvia

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For other uses, see ogre (disambiguation)

Ogre
‎

Location: 56°49′00″N, 24°36′00″E
Area: 13,58 km²
Population: 26,573
City since: 1928
Other names: Oger (German)
Homepage: http://www.ogre.lv

Ogre (population 26,573 in 2000 census) is a principal city of Ogre District in Central Latvia, 36 km east of the capital Riga, situated at the confluence of the Daugava and Ogre rivers. City since 1928. Ogre is composed of three parts: Jaunogre (meaning "New Ogre"), Ogre (the center of the town), and Pārogre (meaning "Ogre across [the river]" though not all of the named region is across the river).

The name of Ogre comes from the Ogre river. The Ogre village is first time mentioned in 1206, called Oger in German. It 1861, when a railway Riga-Daugavpils was built, Riga's residents started to build summer-cottages here. In 1862 Ogre became a health resort.

City Coat of arms were granted in 1938 and show beautiful river and pinewoods of Ogre.

There is a cultural centre, an art school and a music school in Ogre. Just like most of Latvia, half of its population is Latvian and half Russian, and it has 3 Latvian language schools, and 1 Russian language school - Jaunogres vidusskola.

Ogre Lutheran Church, built 1930

[edit] Etymology

The name of the town is said to be of Russian origin (угри[ugri], meaning eels)(because there used to be a lot of eels in the river Ogre) and has nothing to do with the English word ogre, it is said that Catherine the Great of Russia was the one who gave the river this name. However, it is interesting to note that during Soviet occupation as part of Soviet propaganda there were available badges with the face of Lenin and the name Ogre underneath.

As elsewhere in Latvia, the sizeable Russian-speaking community includes not only Russians, but also Ukrainians, Belorussians, Moldovians etc.