Portal:Latvia/Featured article/October
Salaspils ( (population 21,106 in the census of 2000, known as Kircholm until 1917), is a city 18 km south-east of Riga in Latvia, on the western bank of Daugava river. Salaspils is one of the oldest settlements in Latvia, which dates back to 9,000 BC. From the 10th to 15th century, the site was settled by the Livonian and Baltic tribes. The first stone castles and Christian churches in Latvia were built at the nearby Ikšķile and on Mārtiņsala island. The Latvian name of the Salaspils comes from the Mārtiņsala Island castle, but the Germanized name Kircholm – from the Mārtiņsala Island church. Both names were referred to the territory on the right bank of the Daugava ruled by the Livonian Order. In 1605 the town was a site of one of the biggest battles in Europe in the 17th century - the Battle of Kircholm in which forces of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth defeated the much more numerous army of Sweden. The Riga – Daugavpils railway was installed in 1861. A new centre of the inhabited territory set up near Salaspils station. During the World War I for two years the front line was at Salaspils, as a result many public buildings and farmsteads, as well as both churches were destroyed. Several burials of soldiers bearwitness the fierce battles of World War I on the Island of Death (Nāves sala), at the river Mazā Jugla, in other parts of Salaspils and its surroundings. During World War II the Nazi occupation authorities established a camp for Soviet prisoners of war in Salaspils. Later, 2 km from that camp in the nearby forest, the Nazi SS established the largest occupation camp in the occupied Baltics for civilians. The number of those who died at Salapils camp is the subject of ongoing debate, estimates range from 2,000 to 101,000. At the site of the Salaspils concentration camp, a major monument complex in remembrance of the Soviet victims of Nazism was opened on 31 October 1967. During last 60 years the amount of the inhabitants has increased about 70 times as Salaspils became an important centre of the Latvian power industry, science and agriculture.