Brocēni (; ) is a

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

in Saldus Municipality in the

Courland Courland is one of the Historical Latvian Lands in western Latvia. Courland's largest city is Liepāja, which is the third largest city in Latvia. The regions of Semigallia and Selonia are sometimes considered as part of Courland as they were ...

region of

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

. The town is situated along the river Ciecere, near lake Cieceres, which contains a large deposit of

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

that is used in the manufacturing of

cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mi ...

. From 2009 to 2021, the town was the center of

Brocēni Municipality Brocēni Municipality () was a municipality in Courland, Latvia. As of 2020, the population was 5,633. History The municipality was formed in 2001 by merging Blīdene parish, Remte parish and Brocēni town with its countryside territory, th ...

. A

Portland cement Portland cement is the most common type of cement in general use around the world as a basic ingredient of concrete, mortar (masonry), mortar, stucco, and non-specialty grout. It was developed from other types of hydraulic lime in England in th ...

and

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

factory, currently the only one in Latvia, was built from 1936 to 1938 by the

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

-based ''A/S Ch. Schmit'' cement factory of H. H. Šmits. The initial capacity was 60 thousand tons of cement per year. In 1948, during the Soviet occupation of Latvia, operations were expanded with the start of the nationalized Brocēni Cement and Roofing Slate Plant, Brocēni Lime Plant and

Saldus Saldus (; , ) is a Latvian town located in Courland () region of Latvia, and the largest town in Saldus Municipality. The name Saldus has been noted in historical sources as far back as the mid-13th century, but the founding year for the establis ...

Brick Plant. After the restoration of the independence of Latvia, the factory continued work and in 2005 was acquired by

Cemex CEMEX S.A.B. de C.V., known as Cemex, is a Mexican multinational building materials company headquartered in San Pedro, near Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico. It manufactures and distributes cement, ready-mix concrete and aggregates in more than ...

. In 2019, Cemex sold its assets in the Baltic States and the Nordic countries to the German . Brocēni is also home to the Starts Brocēni

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club and one of its successors, ''Brocēni NBJSS'' (Brocēni Municipality Children and Youth Sports School). Broceni station

Notable residents

* Vadims Žuļevs (born 1988), footballer

References

Cities and towns in Courland Populated places established in 1992 Populated places in Saldus Municipality {{courland-geo-stub

Notable residents

See also

References