March 19th, 2015 , 09:52 am
A big post about Liepaja, which includes three parts: a military town built as a base for the fleet of the Russian Empire at the end of the 19th century, coastal fortifications of the same time and one of the non-tourist areas of the city, again formed at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries.
Liepaja military town, aka Karosta (military port - lat.), aka the former port of Alexander III, in my opinion the most impressive and famous part of the city, formed at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries as a major naval port and outpost of the Russian Empire in the Baltic. Liepaja (at that time the city was called Libava) had an ice-free commercial port and a dubious decision was made to equip the Baltic Navy's stronghold here. Doubtful, because it (the base) could not provide a reliable and safe cover due to its extreme proximity to the Prussian border, which was 60 kilometers from Libava. Yes, and for the fleet of a potential enemy it was not difficult to block access to the sea for the Russian squadron. By the way, several decades before the construction of the military port of Libava, preference was given to Vindava (Ventspils) in choosing the main Russian commercial port in the southern Baltic, since it froze less and was closer to European markets.
At the end of the 19th century, Libava again came to the fore - it was decided to build a military port here, and the special Commission "On Communications and Joint Actions of Ground and Naval Forces in the Defense of the State" rejected such options as Vindava, Moonsund and Catherine's Harbor, which is already in the north of the Kola Peninsula . As a result, the fate of history played a cruel joke with Liepaja after the collapse of the USSR - I won’t say anything about Moonsund and Catherine’s harbor, but Ventspils, which is 100 km north of Liepaja, in Soviet times turned into a powerful trading port with modern moorings and piers, and really survived rapid flourishing, which, with the skillful management of the legacy left, had a positive impact on the well-being of the city already today - and Liepaja, having received the status of a closed city as the base of the USSR Navy, remained in 1991 with nothing. One of the confirmations of this is the most severe desolation of the military camp (aka Karosta) in the last two decades. 
One way or another, today it is an impressive and unique architectural monument, an area with its own characteristics and a peculiar aura, which survived the troubled 90s, and now, as Latvian sources of information say, is gradually turning into an integral tourist attraction. However, it is still far from great fame, because with all the desire, the phenomenon of two and a half Baltic states and one and a half Germans, who come to visit the most famous object of the town of Liepaja garrison prison, I cannot call massive. Attracting a tourist is a difficult and creative task, it takes more than one decade. So you can consider that with this post I am promoting Liepaja on the Internet, although I did not receive a penny from the local tourist center. Joke! 
In fact, the walk turned out to be not quite complete, because I planned to come here again the next day, but it didn’t work out, so I’ll catch up next time, which will hopefully be in the summer. 
I'll tell you this - until recently, about five years ago, the military town was a terrible hole, but recently the local authorities seem to have taken up the ennoblement of this area. Roads are being repaired, new sidewalks are being laid, housing is being allocated to the poor. Personally, I expected to see the situation much sadder, but I noticed that the process is slowly moving in a positive direction. Very slowly, but moving forward. There is a long way to go when a mass tourist, and what a tourist is an ordinary Liepaja citizen, will be able to come to the town and say that it is cool here. 
The administrative building of the shipyard, which once repaired warships. Now the enterprise seems to be working, but far from being on the scale of the past. With the collapse of the USSR and the formation of a planned economy, thousands of servicemen and civilians left the city, for whom there was no work left, and the 90s were marked by a wholesale exodus of the active, able-bodied part of the population. 
Nearby you can see a depressing sight on the site of the former Baltika cultural center. There are many similar boarded up and forgotten buildings in Karosta and Tosmar (Tosmare - the adjacent area), but again, I repeat, time is needed. 
In the days of the USSR, the military, their families, workers from the surrounding industries and civilian civilians lived in the military town. The area was pleasant and well-groomed, and in the mid-90s it was dangerous to meddle here. Suddenly, a huge number of various gopniks, lumpen and outcasts appeared, the criminal situation was extremely unfavorable. 
Now about 7 thousand people live in Karosta. I talked to people who live there. They are positive, they do not complain, there are shops, transport links with the main city are good and regular. Poverty is just that, salaries are quite low, pensions are also small, there is little work. 
This is a Tosmare residential area, a courtyard between five-story buildings. The graffiti with the Russian flag, which stands out brightly against the background of the February dullness, attracts attention. By the way, the national composition of the current residents of the town is approximately the following: 70% are Russian speakers, and for the remaining 30%, Latvian is their native language. 
One of the local attractions is the water tower, built in 1905 and providing water to the entire territory of the Military Port. 
The territory of the military camp is literally crammed with railway tracks, especially at the entrance to it. Those paths in the picture lead to the grain loading terminal on the banks of the Military Canal, which is just below. 
The so-called Red Shop in the common people, according to the color of the building material. Nearby there is also the White Store, in the sense that there is also some kind of local trading network, but the locals call the stores as before: red and white. 
Some part of the town is occupied by a similar housing stock - houses built after the war. 
Some roads in Karosta are still paved with concrete aviation slabs, which are being gradually removed. 
Major repairs, replacement of the road surface and communications on the street where the Podplav was located - a military diving base. Let me explain that in 1906, the first Russian diving training detachment was organized in Podplav. The birthplace of Russian scuba diving is located here, in Liepaja. And in Soviet times, there was a base for submarines of the Baltic Fleet. 
This part of the town is the busiest. The condition of the buildings is deplorable. 
Podlav services and barracks were located here, once the newest submarines of the Baltic Fleet were based here. Now there are no submarines or Podplav in the Military Town, but the only diving training center in the Baltics is functioning. And sappers are also trained there. 
There was a large swimming pool around here somewhere, but not a trace of it remains. Here, by the way, there seems to be an open passage to the harbor of Podplav, but there are also prohibitory inscriptions. So I did not go further to the closed territory of the port. 
A little more of the Soviet housing stock of Karosta. Do you want to know how much real estate in such houses costs? A 2-room apartment of 48 square meters requiring minor cosmetic repairs can be rented for 4-5 thousand euros. So far, there are very few applicants. 
Liepaja St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral, which was consecrated in 1903 in the presence of Emperor Nicholas II and his family. During the times of the Latvian USSR, the cathedral housed an ordinary sailor's club and a cinema. 
From the cathedral in a straight line 300 meters to the coast. On the horizon you can see the northern pier, protecting Liepaja port from wind and sand drifts. 
Then I went to the ruins of the Libau Sea Fortress. This is an interesting place for fans and admirers of military history, fortresses and various kinds of fortifications. This is the so-called 3rd coastal battery, located on the northern outskirts of the military camp.
A powerful and modern for those times sea fortress was decided to be built in 1890 as a cover for a military port in the Baltic, the need for which had been brewing for a long time. However, the fate of the fortress was tragic and to some extent mediocre, in less than 20 years it was simply abolished and liquidated, and this despite the enormous funds spent on construction, and the construction of the fortress itself was recognized as a strategic mistake. 
In general, a system of such fortifications encircled the entire coast of the city and has been relatively well preserved to this day, being today a city landmark along with the military town of Karosta, the Liepaja tram and successfully preserved urban development of the late 19th century. Moreover, they even tried to blow up artillery batteries, underground structures and warehouses, but this did not give the desired result. 
These days, especially in summer, these places are extremely popular with locals. And I got to the forts in the February fog and the sea was calm, with waves, of course, the view would have been more spectacular. There is a real expanse for professional photographers. I am writing these lines and smiling, I remembered how ten years ago I saw the royal fort in the pages of a Latvian men's magazine. And one of the former classmates against his background in a very interesting and piquant form)) 
In fact, I was lucky with the weather, I think, because the strong piercing cold wind that usually blows in these parts is not the most pleasant companion for a seaside walk, but it turned out to be a good and calm walk. Although of all the forts this time I was only on the 3rd coastal battery, it is she who is in the pictures. This time I had practically no personal time in Liepaja, I tried to combine private meetings with my interests. On the whole, I think it turned out not bad, I looked, albeit in the style of "galloping through Europe", almost everything that I planned. 
Everything here is very impressive, this system of forts and seaside fortifications surrounding the city is truly unique in its kind. What's going on with the forts now? Nature takes its toll. Wind and sea undermine its former power over the years and destroy the old fortress, concrete pieces of buildings fall off and fall into the water. 
The sight is sad and sad at the same time. 
A megaproject of the past, on which a lot of money was spent for no reason and no use. 
The next two photos are taken half a kilometer or so from the forts. Really unrealistically beautiful, my photos will not convey, of course, such impressions. A low steep coast of the Baltic Sea, overthrowing air, a pine forest, a tree felled by the wind on yellow sand and a deserted strip of beach for many kilometers. The beauty. Baltic beauty. 
I went through the famous drawbridge on the Military Canal. The bridge was designed according to the sketch of the same Eiffel and was intended to provide navigation through the canal of the military camp of the Libava base and land communication between Karosta, which is a separate administrative unit, and Libava. The bridge is formed from two identical movable trusses, which rotate 90 degrees each in its own direction. 
Some information about the bridge. It is considered a technical monument and is the only surviving drawbridge in Latvia. Interestingly, Alexander Gustav Eiffel himself only sketched a technical sketch, according to which the final project was developed in St. Petersburg, and the metal structures were brought from Bryansk. 
The bridge repeatedly failed, it was damaged by the German army during the First World War, and during the Great Patriotic War. A little less than 10 years ago, a completely anecdotal incident occurred - the tanker "Anna", sailing under the flag of Georgia, crashed into the northern span of the bridge, damaging it again, and this happened before the long-awaited large-scale reconstruction. The reconstruction project had to be revised again. 
The military canal, the construction of which required grandiose expensive hydraulic engineering works. 
Gloomy but calm Baltic on the horizon. 
And a little about the most picturesque area of the city in my humble opinion. This is Jaunliepaja or New Liepaja, located between the railway station and the Trade Canal, which connects the Baltic Sea with Liepaja Lake and divides the city into two parts. The architecture of the turn of the 19th-20th centuries is perfectly preserved here, when Liepaja developed at a fantastic - I'm not afraid of this loud definition - pace. Judge for yourself, in 1871 the railway came here, which gave a serious impetus to the development of the city and the commercial port, two decades later, in Liepaja, they began to build a military port for the fleet of the Russian Empire, industry began to develop by leaps and bounds, including metallurgical, the first in the Baltics appeared tram. By the beginning of the First World War, the population of Liepaja numbered more than 100 thousand people, almost twice as many as in Vladivostok (now, for comparison, 70-80 thousand, the data varies). In general, there were objective prerequisites for the city to grow into a large-scale city of the level of Königsberg or Helsinki. Historical, however, the lot of Libau was an extremely unfortunate, somewhat gloomy lot.
All the prospective authority of the city in the future sank in the abyss of two world wars, instability and change of state regimes. Now, frankly, Liepaja is a provincial Latvian town, from year to year losing active and hard-working people who leave either for Riga or for Europe. I will say right away that it is clear that the overall picture is visually slowly improving, the city authorities are trying to do something, but it will not be possible to radically and quickly change the situation for the better. But if you do not go into the vicissitudes of the current economic situation of the city, but simply come for the purpose of tourism, then Liepaja is certainly good for its amazing charm of neglect, which manifests itself precisely in the area in question. 100-year-old wooden and brick houses, a former working-class suburb, almost unaffected by the destruction of the last war, in contrast to the city center, which has undergone significant changes in its appearance. 
A striking example of the city's architecture is a solid three-story red brick house. 
On the main square of New Liepaja, there used to be a good market with local peasant products. 
Wooden houses with stove heating, there are many of them in Liepaja. 
All such houses are owned by private individuals and look, accordingly, in different ways, depending on the income and desire of the owner. 
Rigas (Rizhskaya) street and view towards the railway station. 
A beautiful apartment building, but very shabby. 
I spent my childhood in this city, every street here and every gateway is very familiar to me. 
Sad sight - I remember this house is inhabited. 
Cult for every Liepaja cheburek, I remember the freshest delicious chebureks - one and a half servings in three pieces and two glasses of tomato juice for 72 kopecks. Now it's a cheap drink shop. 
By the way, have you already noticed that there are practically no people on the streets, and this is noon on Friday? 
Charismatic Liepaja gates, where nothing changes - 30 or 50 years ago the view was identical. 
The oldest city cemetery, located near the Trade Canal. 
Pointwise appearance of New Liepaja is diluted with Soviet construction. 
Buildings of the former brewery, traditional red Cyprich again. 
An impressive complex of multi-storey royal port warehouses. 
Another view of them, but from the Tram Bridge over the Trade Canal. 
On the other side of the canal is a promenade with hotels and restaurants. Something large and round in the distance will soon be a concert hall. 
As I already mentioned, during the 2nd World War, the center of Liepaja was badly damaged, so the city center was built up anew and no special architectural sights were preserved. Except perhaps a couple of old port barns, which I didn’t get to. never made it to the center in two days. 
Another feature of the city is the street water pump. Functioning. I remember that we, little boys, running on a hot summer day through the gates or the park, always knew where the nearest such watering point was. 
Serious Liepaja cat. 
Liepaja is the westernmost and third largest city in Latvia, the largest in Courland-Kurzeme. Its historical center, the so-called. Vecliepaja (Old Liepaja) occupies the isthmus between the Baltic Sea and Lake Liepaja. To the north of the Old Town, between the Trade Canal connecting the sea and the lake, and the railway station, there is the town of New (Jaunliepaja), where the main industrial enterprises of Libau were concentrated even in pre-revolutionary times. Behind the railroad - the suburbs, partially occupied by the Soviet sleeping bag, and even to the north, already behind the Karosta Canal, the area of the same name, which previously housed a large imperial, and then a Soviet naval base with a residential town. Here, in fact, I will try to tell about this about everything in the next few episodes.
And I'll start just from the outskirts, from Karosta. A naval base in the prosperous and, what is most strange at the same time, only a provincial city of Libau, a few tens of kilometers from the borders with Germany, began to be built in 1893. so-called. The "Port of Alexander III" was to become one of the main bases of the imperial fleet, and the state did not stint on it, investing a bunch of money (more than 15 million rubles) in hydraulic engineering and other construction work, which included not only the construction of port and fortifications, the laying of a railway branches and the creation of a residential town, but also, for example, digging a special shipping channel inland, where the fleet was actually supposed to be located.
In Soviet times, Karosta was a closed military town, where, among other things, a submarine base was located. Now, with the departure of the military, the area drags out a rather depressing existence, while representing considerable interest for fans of military history. I am not one of the latter, but nevertheless I considered it necessary to look here for an hour in order, so to speak, to get a general idea of the local buildings and atmosphere. We also walked along the long North Pier, built at the end of the 19th century to protect the new harbor from Baltic storms.
Liepaja was the last new Latvian city on our May trip, and this is the case when we left the sweet for dessert.
1. Liepaja in Latvia is known as a very windy place, so it is not surprising that the largest wind farm in the country is located here, a wind farm with 33 wind turbines from the German company Enercon. This whole economy is clearly visible at the entrance to the city from Kuldiga.
3. Entrance sign to the city with a coat of arms and an anchor.
4. To begin with, we immediately went to the North Pier.
5. The beach in his area.
6. On the shore, the remains of the buildings of the former Libau fortress and a lonely windmill are visible.
7. This is the former 3rd battery of the fortress. In general, lovers of fortification and abandonment in Liepaja in general, and Karosta in particular, would find a lot of material for a fierce, mad fap.
8. Harbor, from where the 2nd squadron of the Pacific Fleet, Vice Admiral Zinovy Rozhdestvensky, who died near Tsushima, left for the Russo-Japanese War, and later Soviet submarines went on combat duty. At the left edge of the picture, the Liepaja port facilities are visible, on the right, on the horizon, the breakwaters limiting the harbor from the west are barely visible.
9. The port is larger from here.
10. And this is a view in the opposite direction, to the north, to the open Baltic Sea.
11. The northern pier was built at the end of the 19th century during the construction of the Port of Alexander III. Its length is 1.8 km, and its width is up to 7 meters. Now the pier is open for free access, and, I must say, it was quite crowded here, considering the fucking places in which it is located.
12. The final part of the pier is in a terrible state. It's a bit tempest here in a storm.
13. Northern pier towards the coast.
14. Particularly impressive, a mountain of gouges, the building looks from the beach.
15. Probably the most spectacular building of all Karosta, the St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral, is clearly visible from here.
16. The building was built in 1900-03. designed by the St. Petersburg architect Vasily Kosyakov and was consecrated in the presence of Emperor Nicholas II, who financed the construction from his own funds.
17. Now the cathedral is under restoration and all stands in the woods.
18. Around the cathedral, which occupies a central place in the ensemble of the military camp, are the remains of pre-revolutionary Karosta. The building was carried out according to a regular plan using standard (or probably, as they said then, "exemplary") building projects.
19. Of course, there are a lot of abandoned houses here. Alas, the middle of a sunny day at the end of May is not the best time to photograph the buildings of the former military camp. In addition, many buildings are simply not visible for the trees.
20. And many of those that were not planted on all sides with greenery, as luck would have it, were in the backlight.
21. Palace of the Officers of the Naval Nobility Assembly.
22. This is one of the few pre-revolutionary Karosta buildings currently in use. The Training Center of the Latvian Naval Forces is located here and in neighboring buildings.
23. What to do with the rest, the city authorities, such an impression, have not yet decided.
24. However, in one of the houses the museum-hotel "Karosto Prison" was opened, where everyone is invited to experience the delights of the former prison of the Liepaja naval base. Photo from Wikimapia.
25. I didn’t shoot the building, it’s behind a fence, but I clicked on an excursion group of schoolchildren. A man in the uniform of a Soviet colonel lined up the children, said "Hands behind the head", ordered them to sit down and then jump into the territory of the institution. Apparently, this is one of the elements of the museum visit program, which allows you to feel its atmosphere more deeply.
26. In general, the development of Karosta and the neighboring military town of Tosmare is quite diverse. There are also Stalinists.
27. And typical five-story panel buildings lined with small turquoise tiles, of which there are thousands in military camps in the expanses of the former Soviet Union and those states where Soviet troops were stationed.
28. Everything looks very depressing, although sometimes renovated buildings come across.
29. But there are still much more abandoned ones.
30. I did not thoroughly investigate Karosta. And because of the unsuitable conditions for photography, and because of the desire to see Liepaja itself in more detail, therefore I send you to the posts of a colleague for details nordprod
and colleagues periskop.su
and . I went to the Karosta canal (the one dug artificially) to inspect another curious object. Karosta Canal towards the naval base. This entire structure was dug with special dredgers imported from Marseille. The width of the channel is 128 meters. For a year in 1965, for such a picture, I would have been given a personal tour of the interiors of the local prison with a detailed demonstration of all its orders.
31. In the photo, the exit of the channel to the harbor of Karosta.
32. An interesting object, for which we came here, is the beautifully restored Oskar Kalpak Bridge, built across the Karosta Canal in 1903-05. designed by the firm of Gustave Eiffel.
33. Pay attention to the elegant wrought-iron lanterns, from which one smells like Paryzhom. During the passage of ships along the canal, both halves of the bridge turn 90 degrees each in their own direction.
34. An electronic scoreboard hangs by the bridge with the exact time of the next divorce. It was tempting to wait, of course, but because there were no ships waiting nearby, I reasoned that the bridge might not be opened at all, so I didn’t risk losing time.
35. Instead, I managed to see Jaunliepaja, the New Town of Libau with a railway station.
About this very atmospheric area of the city in the next series.
Liepaja military town, aka Karosta (military port - lat.), aka the former port of Alexander III, in my opinion the most impressive and famous part of the city, formed at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries as a major naval port and outpost of the Russian Empire in the Baltic. Liepaja (at that time the city was called Libava) had an ice-free commercial port and a dubious decision was made to equip the Baltic Navy's stronghold here. Doubtful, because it (the base) could not provide a reliable and safe cover due to its extreme proximity to the Prussian border, which was 60 kilometers from Libava. Yes, and for the fleet of a potential enemy it was not difficult to block access to the sea for the Russian squadron. By the way, several decades before the construction of the military port of Libava, preference was given to Vindava (Ventspils) in choosing the main Russian commercial port in the southern Baltic, since it froze less and was closer to European markets.
At the end of the 19th century, Libava again came to the fore - it was decided to build a military port here, and the special Commission "On Communications and Joint Actions of Ground and Naval Forces in the Defense of the State" rejected such options as Vindava, Moonsund and Catherine's Harbor, which is already in the north of the Kola Peninsula . As a result, the fate of history played a cruel joke with Liepaja after the collapse of the USSR - I won’t say anything about Moonsund and Catherine’s harbor, but Ventspils, which is 100 km north of Liepaja, in Soviet times turned into a powerful trading port with modern moorings and piers, and really survived rapid flourishing, which, with the skillful management of the legacy left, had a positive impact on the well-being of the city already today - and Liepaja, having received the status of a closed city as the base of the USSR Navy, remained in 1991 with nothing. One of the confirmations of this is the most severe desolation of the military camp (aka Karosta) in the last two decades.
One way or another, today it is an impressive and unique architectural monument, an area with its own characteristics and a peculiar aura, which survived the troubled 90s, and now, as Latvian sources of information say, is gradually turning into an integral tourist attraction. However, it is still far from great fame, because with all the desire, the phenomenon of two and a half Baltic states and one and a half Germans, who come to visit the most famous object of the town of Liepaja garrison prison, I cannot call massive. Attracting a tourist is a difficult and creative task, it takes more than one decade. So you can consider that with this post I am promoting Liepaja on the Internet, although I did not receive a penny from the local tourist center. Joke!
In fact, the walk turned out to be not quite complete, because I planned to come here again the next day, but it didn’t work out, so I’ll catch up next time, which will hopefully be in the summer.
I'll tell you this - until recently, about five years ago, the military town was a terrible hole, but recently the local authorities seem to have taken up the ennoblement of this area. Roads are being repaired, new sidewalks are being laid, housing is being allocated to the poor. Personally, I expected to see the situation much sadder, but I noticed that the process is slowly moving in a positive direction. Very slowly, but moving forward. There is a long way to go when a mass tourist, and what a tourist is an ordinary Liepaja citizen, will be able to come to the town and say that it is cool here.
The administrative building of the shipyard, which once repaired warships. Now the enterprise seems to be working, but far from being on the scale of the past. With the collapse of the USSR and the formation of a planned economy, thousands of servicemen and civilians left the city, for whom there was no work left, and the 90s were marked by a wholesale exodus of the active, able-bodied part of the population.
Nearby you can see a depressing sight on the site of the former Baltika cultural center. There are many similar boarded up and forgotten buildings in Karosta and Tosmar (Tosmare - the adjacent area), but again, I repeat, time is needed.
In the days of the USSR, the military, their families, workers from the surrounding industries and civilian civilians lived in the military town. The area was pleasant and well-groomed, and in the mid-90s it was dangerous to meddle here. Suddenly, a huge number of various gopniks, lumpen and outcasts appeared, the criminal situation was extremely unfavorable.
Now about 7 thousand people live in Karosta. I talked to people who live there. They are positive, they do not complain, there are shops, transport links with the main city are good and regular. Poverty is just that, salaries are quite low, pensions are also small, there is little work.
This is a Tosmare residential area, a courtyard between five-story buildings. The graffiti with the Russian flag, which stands out brightly against the background of the February dullness, attracts attention. By the way, the national composition of the current residents of the town is approximately the following: 70% are Russian speakers, and for the remaining 30%, Latvian is their native language.
One of the local attractions is the water tower, built in 1905 and providing water to the entire territory of the Military Port.
The territory of the military camp is literally crammed with railway tracks, especially at the entrance to it. Those paths in the picture lead to the grain loading terminal on the banks of the Military Canal, which is just below.
The so-called Red Shop in the common people, according to the color of the building material. Nearby there is also the White Store, in the sense that there is also some kind of local trading network, but the locals call the stores as before: red and white.
Some part of the town is occupied by a similar housing stock - houses built after the war.
Some roads in Karosta are still paved with concrete aviation slabs, which are being gradually removed.
Major repairs, replacement of the road surface and communications on the street where the Podplav was located - a military diving base. Let me explain that in 1906, the first Russian diving training detachment was organized in Podplav. The birthplace of Russian scuba diving is located here, in Liepaja. And in Soviet times, there was a base for submarines of the Baltic Fleet.
This part of the town is the busiest. The condition of the buildings is deplorable.
Podlav services and barracks were located here, once the newest submarines of the Baltic Fleet were based here. Now there are no submarines or Podplav in the Military Town, but the only diving training center in the Baltics is functioning. And sappers are also trained there.
There was a large swimming pool around here somewhere, but not a trace of it remains. Here, by the way, there seems to be an open passage to the harbor of Podplav, but there are also prohibitory inscriptions. So I did not go further to the closed territory of the port.
A little more of the Soviet housing stock of Karosta. Do you want to know how much real estate in such houses costs? A 2-room apartment of 48 square meters requiring minor cosmetic repairs can be rented for 4-5 thousand euros. So far, there are very few applicants.
Liepaja St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral, which was consecrated in 1903 in the presence of Emperor Nicholas II and his family. During the times of the Latvian USSR, the cathedral housed an ordinary sailor's club and a cinema.
From the cathedral in a straight line 300 meters to the coast. On the horizon you can see the northern pier, protecting Liepaja port from wind and sand drifts.
Then I headed to the ruins of Libavskaya, and left the military town already through the famous drawbridge on the Military Canal. The bridge was designed according to the sketch of the same Eiffel and was intended to provide navigation through the canal of the military camp of the Libava base and land communication between Karosta, which is a separate administrative unit, and Libava. The bridge is formed from two identical movable trusses, which rotate 90 degrees each in its own direction.
Some information about the bridge. It is considered a technical monument and is the only surviving drawbridge in Latvia. Interestingly, Alexander Gustav Eiffel himself only sketched a technical sketch, according to which the final project was developed in St. Petersburg, and the metal structures were brought from Bryansk.
The bridge repeatedly failed, it was damaged by the German army during the First World War, and during the Great Patriotic War. A little less than 10 years ago, a completely anecdotal incident occurred - the tanker "Anna", sailing under the flag of Georgia, crashed into the northern span of the bridge, damaging it again, and this happened before the long-awaited large-scale reconstruction. The reconstruction project had to be revised again.
The military canal, the construction of which required grandiose expensive hydraulic engineering works.
Gloomy but calm Baltic on the horizon.
Then I'm heading to the "mainland" Liepaja and with the hope of returning to the town in the summer. What can be said in summary? The area is not easy and ambiguous, little by little changes are taking place for the better. Of course, there are many terrible neglected corners in the town, there is a lot of work ahead, but ... perhaps now there is a slow awakening after many years of hibernation. 
14.
15.
16.
The palace building itself is amazingly elegant, I would rather think that this is the estate of some Ostsee baron from among the first persons of the Russian Empire, who built a power plant with a pipe out of love for everything modern.
17.
Yes, and buildings from past frames are palaces with palaces. As if there was not the Port of Alexander III here, but a conglomerate of baronial estates closer to the sea:
18.
The completion of this entire system is the St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral (1900-03), 54 meters high (although I gave all 70 meters "by eye"), perhaps the largest Orthodox (domed) church in the entire Baltic region. Like the namesake in Kronstadt, it was built by Vasily Kosyakov. Pay attention to the central cross-anchor:
19.
The cathedral is especially interesting from the inside - it has a pillarless hall supported by arches in the shape of a giant hemisphere ... but when I took out the camera, the caretaker ran up to me and without any aggression, but very soulfully said something like: "Please don't shoot here! This is God's temple, not a museum!", and I did not have enough vulgarity and self-confidence to give a damn about the request. It should be noted that the Latvian Orthodox Church seemed to me quite unfriendly in general (most of all it looks like the "Moscow" eparchies of Western Ukraine), and in Liepaja I was not allowed to shoot in addition to the Orthodox cathedral in one of the churches. I didn’t find any decent photos of the interior of the Naval Cathedral on the Internet either, but in general, once you’re here, be sure to go inside:
20.
Not far from the cathedral there is also a modest monument to those who died in Tsushima, and I even honestly tried to find it, but I never found it - however, Periscope has several photos.
21.
And the cathedral, no matter what anyone says, is good. I don’t like these pseudo-Russian stylizations at all, in 9/10 cases they are banal and primitive, but here is the master’s handwriting:
22.
Behind the cathedral, a Soviet military town begins - these, as I understand it, are scattered throughout the former countries of the Warsaw Bloc, right up to East Germany.
23.
Shabby, and often abandoned five-story buildings, as in some depressive town in the Urals with a closed mine or a bankrupt factory:
24.
People in Karosta live very peculiar:
25.
26.
27.
Moreover, firstly, not only Russians, but secondly, there are enough children here. Here is a life-affirming sketch - an old sailor plays with his granddaughter:
28.
From here I went to the Northern Pier (which was discussed in the last part) and further along the intricate trajectory, which I will no longer reproduce, I went to the Subfloor, that is, moving away from the sea. One of the most memorable buildings in Karosta is the so-called Red Deli. In the photo of Periscope, it is still abandoned, and now it is again occupied by a store of one of the most popular chains in Latvia:
29.
In general, the eastern half of Karosta is even darker than the western. The buildings are even more sparse, the vegetation is even more lush, and the buildings behind it may not be visible from neighboring ones:
30.
Stalinka of the Soviet naval base - it was, of course, not secondary, but not the flagship, like the royal one.
31.
The names of these streets are quite modern, and among other things there is even a street of the British Navy (not in the photo): on the one hand, it was the latter that covered the steamer "Saratov" with the first Latvian government, and on the other hand, there is, of course, a special show-off to name the street in former nest of the Russian and Soviet Navy. However, it is much more elegant than Dudayev's numerous streets in Eastern European cities.
32.
So, slowly (the local distances can only be felt!), I got to the Karostinsky prison - one of the most impressive buildings of the former Port Alexandra. Rather, it is not even a "civilian" prison, but a disbat corps. In modern Latvia, they made an anecdote in the style of "spreading cranberries" out of it:
33.
Here's a fence. Of course, I understand that from the point of view of a European layman, the Soviet prison where teplushka arrives (by the way, where is she?!) can only be surrounded by such a zabor iz gnilyh dosok, but for example, it didn’t cost me anything to take a shot through it. In general, such a thing could not serve as a serious obstacle to escaping or transferring something forbidden:
34.
Gates... no, well, at least it’s clear that people tried, but they clearly entrusted this matter to young Latvians who knew about the USSR from films with James Bond:
35.
The American (judging by the white star) amphibious device, apparently, came to save the prisoners:
36.
But the main facepalm was waiting for me inside. Here you can get an extreme night completely free of charge, say, on the 31st day of each month at Triufmalnaya, and even the show there is not even elements. You can also take a camera and take a trio of shots in the metro of Tashkent, Baku or Tbilisi (in the last two, however, as you're lucky). Only there will real extreme, not a parody.
37.
Inside, although the heavy spirit has not disappeared and the echo is unpleasantly booming, children are running around. a cafe is open ... In general, I'm sorry, but I think they don't joke with such things.
38.
Look for comparison (this is about whether Stalinism has been rehabilitated in Russia) or. However, even without an entertaining element, it is possible to catch up with such pathos that the cranberries will turn out to be even larger - as we say in Kazakhstan. Interestingly, from the reverse side, the Karostinsky prison looks quite convincing:
39.
And through a hole in the veil in the backyard, old barracks and a miserable modern life are visible:
40.
Some more thickets, abandoned places, gloomy silence:
41.
Somewhere, however, more plausible "islands" come across - apparently, everything depends on the residents:
42.
Some streets, such as Lazaretnaya, however, are being repaired. The water tower from the boiler pumping station is already on General Balozh Street - the main one in Karsota from those perpendicular to the sea:
43.
By which I went to Tosmar - the eastern half of the former Porta Alexandra III. As I understand it, if Karosta was the town of the military proper, then grouped around the harbor and shipyards of Tosmare, it was a service town near the shipyard. Its feature is numerous railway lines, one of which is captured on the introductory frame:
44.
Subdlava also comes here - a rectangular branch of the military channel, clearly visible on the map (see the last part), and in general, it is Subdlava that is the most interesting thing here: Port Alexander III is considered the birthplace of the Russian submarine fleet, which was so afraid of during the Cold War America. Rather, it all began in Vladivostok during the years of the Russo-Japanese War, for which the Russian Empire hastily bought or ordered submarines from all over the world, designed its own and sent them there by train. Their names were underwater, but not at all formidable - "Dolphin", "Skat", "Catfish" and even "Trout" and "Burbot", but they performed their task, and their presence was not the last reason why the Japanese did not attack to Vladivostok. By 1906, when Nicholas II signed a decree on the allocation of submarines to an independent class of warships, Russia had 19 of them (including 13 in the Far East - the winner, Japan, for comparison, had only 6). However, the Diving Training Unit was created precisely in Libau - in the Baltic this was especially important (after all, Germany was the leader of the submarine fleet, and in the event of a big war it was necessary to somehow cover St. Petersburg), but again - why here, and not, say , in Reval or on the Moonsunds? Libava also served as a submarine base under the USSR ... and passing by a submarine, I suddenly discovered an open passage and headed there along an overgrown track. Some girls of school age were sitting and talking on the shore of the submarine (I didn’t take pictures) and there was an empty “nest” of a submarine of incomprehensible age:
45.
On the other side are the old shipyard buildings:
46.
One of which is absolutely grandiose:
47.
In search of the best possible view, being sure that everything here is all the same, I went along the coast. The ship repair plant seems to be in operation, and in the distance there are three chimneys of a metallurgical plant:
48.
Suddenly, a girl in a police uniform blocked my way, beautiful as in American action movies - lush white hair, black glasses, a walkie-talkie and a holster on strong hips. Seeing her, I decided to reverse, but she called me in Latvian. I threw up my hands, said that I was a tourist from Russia, apologized that I did not speak Latvian, wandered here by accident and now I am looking for a way out. The girl politely said that she was taking me to the exit and ordered me to follow her, but she said something on the radio, and even without knowing Latvian, I roughly understood the essence, because I heard such conversations in Russian, Ukrainian, Kazakh and Moldovan (although without walkie-talkies) more than once, and they did not bode well for me. In general, realizing that here, as it were, the post-Soviet space is all the same, while at the same time a "probable enemy", and in addition knowing many stories about how even in the most civilized countries such as Germany, Finland or Canada, a police car rarely, but still gave failures in work and crippled fate in a completely totalitarian style, I noticeably tensed up. However, everything turned out to be simpler: firstly, I wandered not to a factory or a military facility, but to something transport; secondly, the “chief” man, who was waiting for us on duty at the same exit, was relaxed and friendly, and we had a good talk with him for life, while the same girl copied my passport data, promising not to transfer them anywhere without needs. The chief recalled that in Soviet times everything was different and like his father, then a rural peasant, wandering where he shouldn’t, spent several days under arrest, waiting for all authorities to agree that he was not dangerous. What worried the Latvian guards the most was the lack of a "personal code" in my passport - we really don't have one. The most post-Soviet moment was why I freely entered the territory (and explaining how it happened, I rested on the principle "what is not prohibited is allowed", and there were no prohibition signs) - the "passage is prohibited" sign was recently stolen as colored scrap ...
But in general, everything was done correctly and in a civilized manner, and it took about 20 minutes, and then they returned my passport and escorted me to the main street near the building of the SRZ Directorate, where I got on a bus that came up (brand) and left for the center.
49.
View of the SRZ through the Military Canal:
50.
Yes, oil storage facilities on its southern side - perhaps even pre-revolutionary ones:
51.
In the next part - about the industrial areas of New Liepaja.
Liepaja
.
Karosta.
Station and Northern suburb.
New town.
Old city. Houses and streets.
Old city. Churches and market.
In the previous part, I showed a little of Liepaja and the local tram, and this one is dedicated to the main purpose of the inspection itself, namely the military town of the Liepaja Naval Base, a reserve of the naval history of two great states - the USSR and the Russian Empire. Now this northernmost district of the city is called Karosta, the area a little to the east is Tosmare, and all this once began with the grandiose construction of a new base for the imperial fleet in Libau, which was then called the Port of Alexander III.
This place as a whole turned out to be unlucky - twice the base was given to the enemy (1915 and 1941), twice it was at the disposal of a fragment-limitrophe after the collapse of statehood (1920 and 1991); from the very beginning of the construction of the base (1892), they could not decide on its role in any way, constantly changing plans. Huge funds of the empire were literally buried in the ground here: at first a powerful fortress was built here, and only a few years later it began to be dismantled. From here, the Second Pacific Squadron of Vice Admiral Rozhdestvensky went into a sea grave called "Tsushima", several uprisings occurred ...
Nevertheless, there were also positive pages here: imperial Libava became the cradle of the Russian submarine fleet - it was here in 1906 that the legendary "Scuba Diving Training Squad" was formed. After the war, the Soviet Liepaja became the submarine base of the Baltic Fleet of the USSR and successfully played this role until 1991.
* * *
I was also not very lucky with my visit: when I reached this place, it began to rain, then heavy, then subsided. It didn't stop until dark. In addition, the very short autumn daylight hours severely limited my opportunities and confronted me with a tough choice of viewing objects. The territory of the naval base and the former garrison was too large, willy-nilly, I had to choose priorities and only outline points for a more detailed examination of this place. Therefore, I examined Tosmare, the central part of Karosta with the cathedral, the bank of the canal and the royal bridge, as well as several garrison quarters. Neither the pier of the outport, nor the territory of the Podplav, nor the prison, nor a number of other ruined objects - kindergartens, clubs, HF barracks, were included in my itinerary this time.
But what I saw, I will show. I collected the military camp in two posts - I don’t want to divide it more fractionally, so the photo story turned out to be very voluminous.
Bony with a scythe finally overtook a military town in 1994
However, let's start the story with a geographical overview of the area.
So. The main thing that strikes with its strangeness, as soon as you delve into the history of this place - what the hell was it to start the colossal construction of a strategic military port 35 miles from the border of its main rival in the opposing coalition - the Second Reich?
2. Look at the map of the Baltic in the 1900s, Libava is marked by me with a red punch. From the south, the territory is supported by a ledge of the border of Kaiser Germany with the well-equipped port of Memel and the developed railway network of East Prussia.
In general, it is completely incomprehensible why it was here - despite the fact that the creation of the port required the digging of a shipping channel, the construction of an inner harbor and large-scale expensive hydraulic engineering works. After all, there was Vindava, more northerly and further from the border, or, say, the island of Ezel, more protected from attack. The subsequent history clearly showed how unsuccessfully Libava is located in this situation: at first it was constantly fired upon by the Germans, who had a more powerful fleet and long-range artillery; and in April 1915, the port was simply abandoned, destroying the bridge and the remains of the fortifications, where the Kaiser troops then entered. Then, in the First World War, the Second Reich actively used the former royal military port - in particular, from here a landing was made on Moonsund in the fall of 1917, which ended with the capture of the islands.
The same thing happened in the pre-war USSR: he got the Latvian Liepaja relatively intact and intact, but the location of the base did not give any illusions. During the German attack, the base was abandoned on June 27th, defending it for only five days. For comparison: the Soviet Union left the Moonsund archipelago only on October 19 (already a month and a half after the start of the blockade of Leningrad), and from there the Red Army Air Force flew to Berlin and other objects, despite the fact that in the northern sector the successes of the Wehrmacht were very impressive.
3. Here, on the atlas published in June 1940, it is clearly seen how vulnerable Liepaja was with that configuration of borders, especially after Hitler wrested the former German port of Memel from frightened Lithuania in March 1939. It became fully safe only in the post-war USSR, after the annexation of East Prussia.
But be that as it may, at the cost of colossal costs, by the beginning of the 1900s, a large military port, a fortress with artillery, as well as a naval town, built according to a regular plan, were built here. The territory of the Port of Alexander III was an administratively separate unit from civil Libau, which had its own postal code and limited access.
4. The infamous 2nd Pacific Squadron on the Libau raid, preparing to leave for the Pacific Ocean. October 2, 1904. 
* * *
Well, let's move on from a small digression into history to the present - from the beginning of October 1904 to the middle of October 2012.
5. Here is a fragment of the map of modern Liepaja. Karosta and Tosmare are the very north of the city, the arrows show my way to the Naval Cathedral. True, starting from Tosmare (a change in direction from northwest to west), I did it on foot. The protrusion of the shipping channel to the north and its western shore - this is the area of the Training Detachment of Diving (founded in 1906), then it was occupied by submariners of the Soviet Baltic Fleet. The eastern part - there was a shipyard and dry docks for the repair of fleet ships. The cross is the Naval Cathedral.
6. What immediately attracts attention in the area is the permeation of its railway tracks, which here come to the coastline literally everywhere. Here is a view of the approaches to the port oil terminal located on the southern bank of the canal.
7. Next, bus number 3 follows north. As it rounds the cul-de-sac of the harbour, at the turn of the road to the west towards Karosta, the old houses of Porta Alexandre III immediately begin. And although it started to rain, I immediately got off to watch the structure of the military camp from its very border.
8. So, we went out and walk along the typical royal capital houses, apparently built for employees of the shipyard or base officers. It is clear that all the streets are now totally renamed limitrophe Latvia in their own way, and this one is called him. General Baloj. Here along it we will go.
9. Signboards in some places, here and in residential towns, still remain Soviet - independent Latvia in this terrible hole does not particularly bother with the complete cleaning of the Russian spirit, as in other, more civilized places.
10. Shops are also located in the royal state fund. Please note that here, too, Russian words come across on the sign in the design.
12. The "Museum" of the history of the base can be found here in almost all places - for example, in the preserved old fences.
13. There are many access roads here, they pass right through residential areas.
14. There are also dilapidated houses.
15. Let's see one of them from the inside.
16. Paving in many yards and passages is old, stone, from the beginning of the century. It can be seen that they built for a long time, thoroughly.
17. And here is a residential building, in good condition.
18. Doors, small details - much has survived God knows from what times. Shall we take a look inside?
19. Inside is also textured. The stair railings with forged elements have also been preserved, and the doors, again, are original. Despite the fact that they have experienced many owners, occupations and wars.
20. Along the street on the south side, the royal production fund has also been preserved.
21. There is also housing on this side, not much.
23. However, we will now cross the street again to the north side and delve into the residential town of Tosmare, where the Soviet military unit 54605 was located.
24. I will not show this residential town, due to the limited volume of the post; in more detail we will examine the same buildings in Karosta. We just leave from there and by a perpendicular street we again exit to the main street. This 2-storey house, by the way, is also partially abandoned.
25. Opposite, on the south side, the port facilities of the inner basin are already visible. High cranes - from the side of the SRZ, eastern, and the western side (to the right of the frame) - the territory of the Subfloor.
26. There are also dismantled lines here, despite the fact that I simply do not show the numerous intersections of the remaining branches - they all look alike (see frame No. 13).
27. We go further west along the Karosta road. Now you can see the park, and then there will be a garrison cemetery.
28. I also turned to the garrison cemetery. Surnames are almost all Russian, Ukrainian, a little Tatar, signatures in Cyrillic. In the center stands the war memorial of 1941-45.
29. Unfortunately, at that moment the rain literally poured, so it came out blurry. But I had no choice, I had to watch Karost today, because Tomorrow in the morning it was necessary to leave Liepaja - communication with Lithuania is scanty here, literally hanging on a thin thread.
31. Opposite it is a fundamental fork. Should I go to Podplav (in the frame - the direction is straight), with the risk of not having time to inspect the center of the garrison due to darkness, or is it still to the Cathedral with a bridge and a canal? I thought and chose the second. In addition, the rain is spitting, you will get wet all in ruins and ruins ...
32. So let's go to the main residential town of the garrison, where the cathedral is. There he is, already appeared from behind the houses.
33. Looking back at the main Water Tower. A straight road leads to Tosmar and further into the city.
34. And we enter the garrison housing town and turn off the main road to the right. We will come to the cathedral later.
35. About a third of the houses here are abandoned, some are partially abandoned or unfinished due to the collapse of the USSR.
36. It looks a little creepy - as if someone came up and suddenly turned off the construction switch.
37. Here's another unfinished.
38. But next to each other is an unfinished and residential five-story building.
39. The inscriptions on the socles, if you walk around, reflect the geography of the USSR - here you can find Rovno, Chimkent, Krasnoyarsk, Lvov, and Cherepovets.
40. Nevertheless, life on this Mars is glimmering - however, it is obviously bad. There are also kids. I stood and listened - there is only Russian in the yards.
41. Some of the houses do not seem to be abandoned, but pieces of the facades are covered with giant rags. And not only here. I still don’t understand - is this, or something, such a repair, or what? The house further than this is abandoned or unfinished.
42. With the infrastructure, there is obvious destruction, apparently, there is no money at all - impromptu solutions come across everywhere, such as such drainage systems.
43. At the entrance, someone drew Kostlyavaya. Yes, the spirit here is very depressing and sad.
44. And in many places the year of the local Apocalypse comes across - 1994. With regard to the Liepaja base, it is exactly like that, because the former Soviet troops, the last rearguards, left this base for Yeltsin's Russia just then - simultaneously with the evacuation of the GSVG (ZGV). The 94th is embedded in buildings, drawn on concrete, scrawled on pipes ... in general, it comes across quite often.
45. We leave again on the central road ...
46. Store entrance. Here you can see another trouble of the former garrison - garbage disposal. There are definitely obvious troubles with him - the urban economy in this area is in a big ass, almost at zero. And also come across impromptu solutions for its storage.
47. Some kind of historical building. An elderly hare next to me, seeing my interest, said - "Red Grocery Store". However, there is nothing in it, the windows are sealed.
48. Approaching the very center. A number of old buildings are represented here only by foundations - as if someone huge came and arbitrarily erased entire buildings with an eraser.
49. We make our way along the heavily murky royal two-story buildings with sheds in the backyards. The cathedral is near.
50. And finally, he, the Liepaja Naval Cathedral ... looks from above at all these sad surroundings and desolation, like the city of Kitezh of the Russian civilization that has left here.
To be continued
