Balvi () is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

Balvi Municipality Balvi Municipality ( lv, Balvu novads) is a municipality in northern Latgale, Latvia. The municipality was formed in 2009 from parts of the Balvi District, by merging Balvi parish, Bērzkalne parish, Bērzpils parish, Briežuciems parish, ...

in the Latgale region of Latvia. It was the administrative seat of the region (Latvian: ''rajons'') of the same name since 1949; prior to the

occupation of Latvia Latvia has been occupied by military forces from other nations from time to time. Military occupations of Latvia have included: * Livonian Crusade (13th century) * Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940 * Occupation of Latvia by Nazi Germany (1941� ...

it was part of the Abrene district. The name derives from the stream Bolupīte and the adjacent lake. The first mention of Balvi was in 1224. A small wooden church and manor were constructed on the estate of a

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

noblewoman Konstancija Hilsena at the site ca. 1765. When Latgale came under

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

n rule in 1772, the estate was granted to the by

Catherine II , en, Catherine Alexeievna Romanova, link=yes , house = , father = Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst , mother = Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp , birth_date = , birth_name = Princess Sophie of Anha ...

. In 1806 it passed to the Horozhinsky family and in 1876 the estate was purchased by the

Baltic German Baltic Germans (german: Deutsch-Balten or , later ) were ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since their coerced resettlement in 1939, Baltic Germans have markedly declined ...

Transehe-Roseneck family. The village was separated from the estate in 1915, and Balvi received town rights in 1928. Most of the town's Jews (around 21% of the population) perished in the Stahlecker phase of

the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

in August 1941. The retreating Germans set fire to Balvi in July 1944, and the town was rebuilt according to

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

plans from 1945. Balvi was a center of the

Singing Revolution The Singing Revolution; lv, dziesmotā revolūcija; lt, dainuojanti revoliucija) was a series of events that led to the restoration of independence of the Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania from the Soviet Union at the end of ...

and is vital to Latgalian culture today. The town library in particular is the focus of many cultural events.

Demographics of Balvi

References

{{Authority control Towns in Latvia 1928 establishments in Latvia Populated places established in 1928 Holocaust locations in Latvia Balvi Municipality Lyutsinsky Uyezd Latgale