Kuldīga Needle Tower

In an industrial heritage building—the former telegraph tower—an exhibition dedicated to the needle has been created.

At the beginning of the last century, no household in the vast Russian Empire—from the Tsar’s apartments in the Winter Palace to an Old Believer woodcutter’s hut in the forests of Siberia—could do without the products of the Kuldīga factory “Meteors.” Founded in 1854, it was the only needle factory in the entire empire.

After the needle factory was closed in 1910, the building was converted into a city hospital. Today, with the support of the INTERREG Estonia–Latvia Cooperation Programme 2014–2020, an industrial heritage exhibition about the needle has been established on all four floors of the tower:

1st floor – An imitation of a Neolithic environment – “The Cave”; information about Neolithic bone needles; a touch-screen with a virtual exhibition providing access to information for people with limited mobility.
2nd floor – Information about the development of the needle in sewing; information about the development of the needle in medicine.
3rd floor – Information about the development of the needle in music, art, and geography.
4th floor – Information about the history of needle factories in Kuldīga and Latvia.

Important!
• A maximum of 10 people may be in the tower at the same time.
• The rooftop viewing platform is accessible only in favorable weather conditions.