Veckuldīga Hillfort

Veckuldīga Hillfort was inhabited approximately from the late Iron Age (9th–12th centuries) until the early 13th century, while the ancient town likely existed until 1355, when it was relocated closer to the German brick castle in Kuldīga, built in the mid-13th century. Archaeologist and Curonian history researcher Jānis Asaris hypothetically suggests that Veckuldīga Hillfort developed as a regional center in the 12th century, after the Padure Hillfort and settlement, inhabited by Baltic Finnic tribes, was abandoned in the late 11th to early 12th century.

The first mention of Veckuldīga Hillfort comes from 1809, when it was referenced by Ernst Hennigs, the author of one of the earliest studies on Kuldīga’s history. Writing about the construction time and location of Kuldīga’s brick castle (Jesusburg), Hennigs noted that a quarter of a league from the town there was a hillfort (Schloßberg), still called Veckuldīga (Alt-Goldingen).

It is unclear why the prominent Curonian hillfort researcher, the Baltic German pastor August Bielenstein, did not personally visit Veckuldīga Hillfort. In his first and most comprehensive 1869 work on Curonian hillforts, Die altlettischen Burgberge Kurlands (“Ancient Latvian Hillforts in Courland”), he mentioned it but did not provide a detailed description.

Veckuldīga Hillfort is situated on a 15–20 m high earth promontory between the Krāčupīte stream and the Venta River. The hillfort has a leveled plateau of about 90 × 100 m. On the southwest side, it is separated from the rest of the Venta valley by an approximately 100 m long, 20 m wide, and around 6 m high rampart with a ditch, with an entrance at its northwest end. Southwest of the rampart and ditch, along the valley’s continuation, there was a pre-town approximately 130 m long and 40–90 m wide, whose southern part was separated by a now partially filled ditch. To the south of this, in the direction of modern Kuldīga town center, there was an ancient town covering about 9.5 hectares.

More detailed information about Veckuldīga Hillfort can be found here: enciklopedija.lv/veckuldigas-pilskalns