Gallery
This foldout features illustrations of a full women's folk costume and various details: cloth pattern, shawl ornamentation, blouse diagram, crown, collar embroidery, brooches, bodice and ornamentation, woven belt, and descriptive overviews in French, English, Russian, and Latvian.
Alsunga
Alsunga, or by its more ancient name, Alšvanga, is a Curonian village and castle mound dating at least as far back as the 10th century. Written sources, after the Germans' arrival, first mention "Aliswangis" in 1230 in the treaty the Pope's legate Baldwin von Alna made with the Curonians. Under the Curonian king Lamekins, Alšvanga was part of the Bandava state he ruled. Bandava, in turn, is mentioned even further back in history, in the biography of Bishop Ansgar ("Vita Ansgarii") by his successor Bishop Rimbert of Bremen (830–June 11, 888), and is believed to have existed as a kingdom since the late Iron Age.
In 1632, Johann Ulrich von Schwerin, who had converted to Catholicism , began converting his vassal Lutherans to Catholicism. Alšvanga became the Catholic center of all of Courland, Kurzeme in Latvian.
Alsunga's medieval castle has been rebuilt several times and has survived to this day.
After the abolition of feudalism and the institution of administrative reforms, Alšvanga became the center of its parish. A settlement was established around the center of the manor and the castle, which in 1932 was granted township status. In 2021, Alsunga municipality was incorporated into the Kuldīga municipality.
