Kuldīga county (, , ) was a historic

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

of the

Courland Governorate Courland Governorate, also known as the Province of Courland or Governorate of Kurland, and known from 1795 to 1796 as the Viceroyalty of Courland, was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') and one of the Baltic governorates of the ...

and of the

Republic 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 ...

. Its capital was

Kuldīga Kuldīga () () 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 joined the Hanseatic L ...

(''Goldingen'').

History

The Chief Captaincy of Kuldīga () was founded in 1617 as a subdivision of the

Duchy of Courland and Semigallia The Duchy of Courland and Semigallia was a duchy in the Baltic states, Baltic region, then known as Livonia, that existed from 1561 to 1569 as a nominal vassal state of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and subsequently made part of the Crown of th ...

. In 1795, the Duchy was incorporated into 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 ...

, and in 1819 County of Kuldīga (''Kreis Goldingen'') became one of the ten counties of the Courland Governorate. After establishment of the Republic of Latvia in 1918, the ''Kuldīgas apriņķis'' existed until 1949, when the Council of Ministers of the

Latvian SSR The Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic (Also known as the Latvian SSR, or Latvia) was a Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republic of the Soviet Union from 1940 to 1941, and then from 1944 until 1990. The Soviet occupation of the Bal ...

split it into the newly created districts (''rajons'') of

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 ...

Auce Auce (; ; ) is a town in Dobele Municipality, in the Semigallia region of Latvia. It is situated near the Lithuanian border. History Before the 13th century, the territory of Auce was a part of a Semigallians, Semigallian Spārnene county. Aft ...

(dissolved in 1959) and

Skrunda Skrunda (; ) is a town in the Courland region of Latvia. It lies 150 km (95 mi) west of the capital city Riga in Kuldīga Municipality. History The historical sources first mentioned Skrunda () in the Curonian Peninsula in 1253. In 1 ...

(dissolved in 1959).

Demographics

At the time of the Russian Empire Census of 1897, ''Kreis Goldingen'' had a population of 66,335. Of these, 86.6% spoke Latvian, 8.5%

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

, 4.0%

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

, 0.3%

Lithuanian Lithuanian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Lithuania, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe ** Lithuanian language ** Lithuanians, a Baltic ethnic group, native to Lithuania and the immediate geographical region ** L ...

, 0.3%

Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnic groups * Romani people, or Roma, an ethnic group of Indo-Aryan origin ** Romani language, an Indo-Aryan macrolanguage of the Romani communities ** Romanichal, Romani subgroup in the United Kingdom * Romanians (Romanian ...

, 0.2%

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

and 0.1%

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

as their native language.

References

External links

{{coord missing, Latvia Counties of Latvia Captaincies of the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia Uezds of Courland Governorate