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Venta Rapid ( lv, Ventas rumba) is a
waterfall A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in several wa ...
on the
Venta River The Venta (Latvian pronunciation , Lithuanian , , , Livonian ''Vǟnta joug'') is a river in north-western Lithuania and western Latvia. Its source is near Kuršėnai in the Lithuanian Šiauliai County. It flows into the Baltic Sea at Ventspil ...
in
Kuldīga Kuldīga () (german: Goldingen) is a town in the Courland region of Latvia, in the western part of the country. It is the center of Kuldīga Municipality with a population of approximately 13,500. Kuldīga was first mentioned in 1242. It joine ...
, Latvia. It is the widest waterfall in Europe at , and becomes as wide as during spring floods. The height of the falls varies from depending on the level of water in the river.When on Earth/Latvia’s Venta Rapid: The Widest (and Shortest) Rapid in Europe
/ref>


Geology

The waterfall is formed by
Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the Silurian, million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Carboniferous, Mya. It is named after Devon, England, whe ...
dolomite Dolomite may refer to: *Dolomite (mineral), a carbonate mineral *Dolomite (rock), also known as dolostone, a sedimentary carbonate rock *Dolomite, Alabama, United States, an unincorporated community *Dolomite, California, United States, an unincor ...
and its formation is due to the difference in hardness of mineral between its lower and upper parts. Below, it is more brittle and erodes faster, leaving the top layer to hang over it. These upper, more convex parts sometimes collapse and fall into the river. As a result, the waterfall slowly recedes, and since the flow in the central zone is more powerful, the middle of the waterfall gradually retreats higher upstream compared to its sides.Amusing Planet. Vemta Rapid: Europe's Widest Waterfalls
/ref>Reinis Fesher / The Venta Waterfall (Rapid) – Widest in Europe
/ref>


History

The town of Kuldiga was established here because the falls formed an obstacle on the Venta medieval inland shipping route.Вокруг света. Латвия, Литва, Эстония
Moscow 2012 p.135
In the middle of the 17th century,
Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ran ...
of
Courland Courland (; lv, Kurzeme; liv, Kurāmō; German and Scandinavian languages: ''Kurland''; la, Curonia/; russian: Курляндия; Estonian: ''Kuramaa''; lt, Kuršas; pl, Kurlandia) is one of the Historical Latvian Lands in western Latvia. ...
Jacob Kettler Jacob Kettler (german: link=no, Jakob von Kettler) (Latvian: Hercogs Jēkabs Ketlers) (28 October 1610 – 1 January 1682) was one of the greatest Baltic German Dukes of the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia (1642–1682). He was intelligent, sp ...
planned to dig a bypass to avoid the waterfall. Excavation started on the right bank of the river, but the idea was abandoned because the dolomite was too hard and the work was too slow and difficult. Only in the spring does high water enter the shallow canal, forming the island of Martin. According to legend, the Duke ordered the waterfall demolished by explosion. After the first blast, large stone blocks dislodged and the waterfall simply changed its edge line. The power of the blast cracked the walls of the Duke's palace, which was close to the river, and the Duke gave up the idea.Latvian nature monuments – waterfalls. Ventas Rumba
/ref> In the 19th century
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
had plans to create a network of
canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flow un ...
s to unite all the seas of its European part. The idea was to create waterways between the
Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...
and the
Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...
across the Venta,
Neman The Neman, Nioman, Nemunas or MemelTo bankside nations of the present: Lithuanian: be, Нёман, , ; russian: Неман, ''Neman''; past: ger, Memel (where touching Prussia only, otherwise Nieman); lv, Nemuna; et, Neemen; pl, Niemen; ...
and
Dnieper } The Dnieper () or Dnipro (); , ; . is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. It is the longest river of Ukraine and B ...
rivers. To implement these plans, Turkish prisoners of war were commandeered to build a canal. However it was quickly discovered that the dolomite bedrock was too hard to dig. In addition, Venta river was found not to be wide and deep enough for shipping. Construction was discontinued in 1831, however the canal was dug around the waterfall 30 years later. The remains of this canal are still visible today.Lauku ceļotājs Waterfall on Vent River
/ref>


Fishing

In about 1640, Jacob Kettler devised an interesting way of fishing. He ordered 100 large
wicker basket Wicker is the oldest furniture making method known to history, dating as far back as 5,000 years ago. It was first documented in ancient Egypt using pliable plant material, but in modern times it is made from any pliable, easily woven material. ...
s, and had
fishing weir A fishing weir, fish weir, fishgarth or kiddle is an obstruction placed in tidal waters, or wholly or partially across a river, to direct the passage of, or trap fish. A weir may be used to trap marine fish in the intertidal zone as the tide reced ...
s carved into the
bedrock In geology, bedrock is solid Rock (geology), rock that lies under loose material (regolith) within the crust (geology), crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet. Definition Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface mater ...
.Телеканал NTD/Как рыба в Латвии прыгает через водопад
/ref> During seasonal
spawning Spawn is the eggs and sperm released or deposited into water by aquatic animals. As a verb, ''to spawn'' refers to the process of releasing the eggs and sperm, and the act of both sexes is called spawning. Most aquatic animals, except for aquati ...
,
salmon Salmon () is the common name for several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family (biology), family Salmonidae, which are native to tributary, tributaries of the ...
and
sturgeon Sturgeon is the common name for the 27 species of fish belonging to the family Acipenseridae. The earliest sturgeon fossils date to the Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretace ...
attempted to overcome the height of the waterfall by jumping into the air. The fish that failed to overcome the waterfall were swept by the current back into the canals and ended up in the hanging baskets. Later, enterprising fishermen begin to rent a few meters of the waterfall, placed their baskets, and waited for them to fill up with fresh catch.Рамблер, путешествия. Водопад на Венте.
/ref> Typical catch was about 80–100 fish and was a good supplement to an annual income. Kuldīga used to be called 'the town where one can catch salmon in the air'. The salmon and sturgeon in the river disappeared long ago, and in 1892 the last sturgeon was caught. Nowadays, mostly the
vimba ''Vimba'' is a genus of cyprinid fish that is found in Europe and western Asia. There are currently four described species. Species * '' Vimba elongata'' (Valenciennes, 1844) (Bavarian vimba) * '' Vimba melanops'' ( Heckel, 1837) (Macedonian v ...
is fished. However, fishing is prohibited during the spawning season.


Legends

Folk legend Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging fro ...
tells the origin of the waterfall as follows. At the location where the Kata Hut now stands, once lived a sorcerer who was angry with the
devil A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of t ...
himself and intended to take revenge. The Devil used to sleep at the sorcerer's hut, and each night he would collect a bag of stones and fly across the Venta. But the sorcerer made a
rooster The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adult m ...
crow its morning song, causing all of the village roosters to sing too. The devil was frightened and spilled his stones across the river, forming the threshold of the waterfall. ''Муранов О. П.'' У світі водоспадів: (Легенди і правда про водоспади світу) / Авториз. пер. з рос. рукоп. Н. В. Сидоренко. Худож. оформл. В. Т. Гончаренко. — К.: Веселка (видавництво), 1979. c. 61–62. ''Арсеев Г. Т.'' Водопады. — М.: Мысль, 1987. —127 с, 6л. ил. Another legend attributes the formation of the waterfall to the work
Livonian Knights german: Schwertbrüderordenfrench: Ordre des Chevaliers Porte-Glaive , image= , caption= , dates=1204–1237 , country= Terra Mariana , allegiance= Catholic Church , garrison= Wenden (Cēsis), Fellin (Viljandi), Segewold (Sigulda). Aschera ...
, who mined the stones for the construction of castles. The stones were indeed mined, but much later, at the time of the Duke of Courland, and in insignificant amount.


Tourist attractions

240 m from the waterfall is located the famous Kuldiga brick bridge. It was built in 1874 and is the longest operating brick bridge in Europe. Built to the building standards of the time it is wide enough for two
carriage A carriage is a private four-wheeled vehicle for people and is most commonly horse-drawn. Second-hand private carriages were common public transport, the equivalent of modern cars used as taxis. Carriage suspensions are by leather strapping an ...
s to pass. Водопад на реке Венте (Вентас румба)
/ref> Its width is 8 m and its length is 164 m. It was modeled after the bridge on
Moselle The Moselle ( , ; german: Mosel ; lb, Musel ) is a river that rises in the Vosges mountains and flows through north-eastern France and Luxembourg to western Germany. It is a bank (geography), left bank tributary of the Rhine, which it jo ...
river in Germany that was erected at the time of
Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...
. The Kuldiga brick bridge was renovated in 2008 and is now in operation. A wooden path for walking and observation was made along the river and the waterfall. It is visited by 130,000 tourists annually.


Preservation

In 1977 the Venta Rapid was designated a
natural monument A natural monument is a natural or natural/cultural feature of outstanding or unique value because of its inherent rarity, representative of aesthetic qualities or cultural significance. Under World Commission on Protected Areas guidelines, nat ...
of Latvia.


References


External links

{{Commons category
Ventas Rumba – 360° virtual tour
Rapids Waterfalls of Latvia Natural monuments of Latvia Kuldīga Rivers of Latvia Venta River basin