Baloži (; german: Rollbusch) is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than city, cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares ...

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

situated in the Ķekava Municipality just 12 kilometres from the centre of

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the B ...

. In 2021, the city had a population of 6,746. Baloži was founded soon after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

; as a village at the time, it was developed for the nearby

peat Peat (), also known as turf (), is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem covers and is the most efficien ...

factory workers. The oldest part of the town is built in a

Stalinist Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory ...

style. During the 1970s, territory of the village was expanded towards the A7 highway. During the 1980s this part was built as a modern residential district and called Titurga. In 1991 Baloži received town rights. After the Latvian administrative territorial reform of 2009, Baloži became part of Ķekava Municipality and thus became one of the few Latvian towns which are not municipal centres. Baloži is defined by Latvian law as a part of the region of

Vidzeme Vidzeme (; Old Latvian orthography: ''Widda-semme'', liv, Vidūmō) is one of the Historical Latvian Lands. The capital of Latvia, Riga, is situated in the southwestern part of the region. Literally meaning "the Middle Land", it is situated in n ...

Rail network

Baloži had a small rail network. It was 28 kilometres long and was built to transport peat from the local factory.

References

Towns in Latvia Populated places established in 1991 1991 establishments in Latvia Ķekava Municipality Vidzeme {{Vidzeme-geo-stub

Rail network

See also

References