Salaspils
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Salaspils (population 21,106 in the census of 2000, known as Kircholm until 1917), is a town 18 km south-east of Riga in Latvia, on the western bank of Daugava river.
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[edit] History
Salaspils is one of oldest settlements in Latvia. Archaeological excavations of 1964-1975 (during the construction of Riga HES) in ancient settlements, burial grounds and castle mounds give evidence of very dense population of the region. During the excavations which were the largest in the history of the Latvian archaeology, on the right bank of the Daugava the oldest ever known settlement of indigenous Latvians – Salaspils Laukskola (Country School of Salaspils) was found. 11 thousand years ago reindeer hunters had settled there. From the 10th to 15th century, the site was settled by the Livonian and Baltic tribes.
At the end of the 12th and in the beginning of 13th century especially important not only for the history of the region but also for the Latvian ancient history was the small island on the Daugava – Mārtiņsala – which was an important Daugava Liiv centre. The first stone castles and Christian churches were built at the nearby Ikšķile and on Mārtiņsala island. This is where the events described in the Livonian Chronicles – christening and gradual subjection of the local Liiv tribes – took place. It is possible that around that time there were already the Catholic church, because in 1197 the first Christian cemetery in Latvia was consecrated on the island. In 1206 the Liiv chieftain Ako organized the first revolt against the German crusaders but suffered defeat.
The Latvian name of the Salaspils comes from the Mārtiņsala Island castle, but the Germanized name Kircholm – from the Mārtiņsala Island church. Both names were referred to the territory on the right bank of the Daugava ruled by the Livonian Order.
In the XIV century, in 1380 the Livonian Order built their own castle (Neu-Kircholm) on the castle mound and the small St.George’s church next to it. The impressive castle was an important support at the waterway to Riga. In XV-XVI century a small town was set up around the castle, but Salaspils (Neu-Kircholm) was destroyed in 1577 during the Livonian War.
In 1605 the town was a site of the Battle of Kircholm in which forces of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth defeated much more numerous army of Sweden. This were the biggest battle of the Polish-Swedish war. The battle took place near St.George’s church and about 9000 Swedidh soldiers were burried there. Two memorial stones in Salaspils remind of one of the biggest battles in Europe in the 17th century – they are the stones in memory of the survival of the Swedish king Karl IX and the brilliant victory of the Lithuanians and Poles. Up to the second part of the 20th century a magnificent 17th century military fortification rose at the Daugava – the Swedish rampart. The destroyed church was renovated in 1631, but later – in 1896 and 1923 - rebuilt.
In the 17th-19th century the life in the surroundings of Salaspils was set up mainly by two local estates – the Salaspils Estate which was established near the destroyed Order’s castle and belonged to Riga since 1630 and the Kurtes Estate which was situated in the territory of present Līvzemes street in Salaspils.
The railway Riga – Daugavpils was installed in 1861. A new centre of the inhabited territory set up near Salaspils station just opposite the Kurtes Estate. Shock’s greenhouse was transferred from Riga to Salaspils.
Since the second part of the 19th century the military summer camps were organized in the territory of Salaspils and orthodox church was built for the needs of garrison.The 20th century started with the Revolution of 1905 and in the connection with this Salaspils associates with a place of massive slaughter and punishment. During the World War I for two years the front line was at Salaspils, as a result many public buildings and farmsteads, as well as both churches were destroyed. Several burials of soldiers witness of the fierce battles of WWI on the Island of Death (Nāves sala), at the river Mazā Jugla, in other parts of Salaspils and its surroundings
During the first Republic of Latvia there were three parishes in Salaspils territory – Stopiņi, Salaspils(Ķesterciems) and Dole.
[edit] World War II
Salaspils faced a lot of tragic happenings during the World War II. The German occupation authorities established there a concentration camp for prisoners of war. 47 000 people were either killed or they died from diseases and starvation.
Later, 2 km from that camp in the nearby forest, the Nazis established the largest occupation camp in the occupied Baltic for civilians. This camp is not listed in Nazi documents as a concentration camp. Nazi documents signify concentration camps with KZ or KL. Salaspils is marked as an AEL or Arbeits und Erziehungslager, which is a work and education camp. Salaspils was first called a concentration camp in Soviet propaganda. The number of deaths which actually occurred is a hotly contested issue, fueled by Soviet propaganda. There are three different numbers mentioned in different accounts published by Soviet historians. The history of Latvian Soviet republic printed in 1959 claims 56,000 people were killed. The Little Latvian encyclopedia published in the 1970's claims 53,000 were killed. History textbooks published in the 1980's by the Soviet union claim that 100,000 plus were killed in salaspils. The historian H. Strods claims that a realistic number of deaths is 2000.
At the site of the Salaspils concentration camp, a major monument in remembrance of the victims of the Nazis was set up on the 31st of October in 1967.
At late 1950-ties early 1960-ties various mutually unrelated soviet authorities started development of industrial enterprises, governmental institutions and construction of many-storied housing blocks. In a couple of decades Salaspils grew from a very peaceful rural settlement to a town with several separate housing borrows. It was due to the construction of housing districts for the emplyees of Salaspils Nuclear Reactor, four institutions of the Academy of Science, the well-organized village of the former soviet state farm but especially the housing district of building-workers for the construction of Riga HES and Riga TEC-2.
Salaspils became an important centre of the Latvian power industry, science and agriculture. Unfortunately the post-war rapid land development and the construction of the water reservoir devastated the monuments of Salaspils ancient history. The oldest settlement site has been preserved only at Salaspils railway station.
During last 60 years the amount of the inhabitants has increased about 70 times – from 306 people in Salaspils and Ķesterciems in 1943 to 21 102 people in 2000.
In the rural territory next to big industrial enterprises (at Saulkalne, Acone) and at large-scale farming centres many-storied living houses were built.
In 1979 Salaspils acquired the status of rural village and it was the largest rural inhabited place in the Soviet Latvia with 14 000 inhabitants.
The industrial development has lead to population of Salaspils growing to 21,000. As of 2000 census, 42% of population is Latvian, 42% is Russian and 16% belongs to other ethnic groups.
[edit] Geography
[edit] The National Botanical Gardens
The National Botanical Gardens occupy 129 ha in the northern part of Salaspils between the railway and former peat extraction site. The National Botanical Gardens are famous for their richest plant collection in the Baltic States, as well as they have one of the biggest dendrariums in the world. The gardens are open to visitors, their territory is used as a walkabout place by the inhabitants of Salaspils.
[edit] Nuclear reactor
The reactor site is located in the forest, to the west of the institute of physics, in the northeastern part of the town. The reactor was operational from 1969 to 1998. The plant partook in neutron activation analysis and gamma irradiaton for various materials. It was a pool-type reactor. It is now being demolished.
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