Kolka ( Livonian: ''Kūolka'') is a large

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

Kolka Parish Kolka parish (, ) is an administrative unit of Talsi Municipality in the Courland region of Latvia. Villages of Kolka parish * Kolka, Latvia, Kolka - parish administrative center * Košrags * Mazirbe * Pitrags * Saunags * Sīkrags * Uši * Vaid ...

Talsi Municipality Talsi Municipality (; Livonian language, Livonian: ) is a municipality in Courland, Latvia. The municipality was formed in 2009 by Merger (politics), merging Abava parish, Balgale parish, Ģibuļi parish, Īve parish, Ķūļciems parish, Laidze pa ...

, on the tip of Cape Kolka in

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 ...

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 ...

, on the coast of the

Gulf of Riga The Gulf of Riga, Bay of Riga, or Gulf of Livonia (, , ) is a bay of the Baltic Sea between Latvia and Estonia. The island of Saaremaa (Estonia) partially separates it from the rest of the Baltic Sea. The main connection between the gulf and t ...

History

Cape Kolka (Tumisnis) is mentioned for the first time in the Nordic

Viking Age The Viking Age (about ) was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonising, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. The Viking Age applies not only to their ...

and is mentioned in the inscription of the Mervalla Runestone which dates from around 1000 AD is thus one of the oldest written sources that mentions areas of Latvia. According to some historians, a Catholic missionary built a church on Cape Kursa after the Danish invasion around 1050. After 1161, King Abel appointed Ernemord, a canon of the Church of Lund in Denmark, as bishop of Kuramaa. Kolka may be the place where Danish archbishop Absalon built the first church in the Baltic region. The first mentions of it are from 1387, when it was called Domesnes, which may refer to Danish or Finnish background. The Livonian name ''Kūolka'' means "corner" in English. Situated on the cape, the Kolka lighthouse was built in 1864 by the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

navy and has been renovated twice (in 1975 and 1985). There are also ruins of the old lighthouse, which was built in the 14th century.

Climate

Kolka has an

oceanic climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen climate classification, Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of co ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

''Cfb''), because the average temperature in winter is very close to the

freezing point The melting point (or, rarely, liquefaction point) of a substance is the temperature at which it changes state of matter, state from solid to liquid. At the melting point the solid and liquid phase (matter), phase exist in Thermodynamic equilib ...

Livonian homeland

Kolka and other surrounding villages of the

Livonian coast Livonian Coast (; ), also known as Livonia, is a culturally protected territory of Latvia that was historically inhabited by Livonian people. It is located in Northern Courland and encompasses twelve Livonian villages. The protected area is ab ...

are home to the last remnants of Latvia's Livonian ethnic group, whose

Livonian language Livonian ( or ) is a Finnic language whose native land is the Livonian Coast of the Gulf of Riga, located in the north of the Kurzeme peninsula in Latvia but also used to be spoken in the Salaca River valley. Although its last known native ...

is highly endangered. The village has the highest number of Livonians in the historical area of the

. In 1995, of the 186 Livonians in Latvia, 53 were living in Kolka.

Religion

Kolka is home to three picturesque and historic churches, each representing one of the largest religious communities in Latvia:

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

Russian Orthodox The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

, and

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

. The town also holds a special connection to the Theotokos of Tikhvin. It was Kolka’s Russian Orthodox priest who first safeguarded the icon for many years in the USA, and later, his spiritual son returned it to its original location at Tikhvin Monastery in Russia.Half a Century on the Livonian Coast
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Present times

Kolka has a small hotel, a restaurant, several shops, a post office, a chemist, and a petrol station. An old fish processing factory (now closed) is located in the port harbour. There is a Livonian cultural centre with a small museum.

References

External links

www.kolka.lv
Populated places in Talsi Municipality {{Courland-geo-stub