A museum dedicated to fishermen’s lifestyle has opened in Ventspils

There are only two such large open-air museums in Latvia, the vast territories of which are dedicated to historical and ethnographic heritage, but only the open-air museum in Ventspils is dedicated to the profession and lifestyle of fishermen, as well as the history of Libyan seaside villages. The previous building of the Ventspils Seaside Open-Air Museum was built in 1970, the museum’s treasury together with a couple of rooms were not designed to store such a large collection. This week, the renovated Ventspils open-air museum is open for viewing, from now on the exhibition halls will also be open during the winter months.

On the territory of the Ventspils Seaside Open-Air Museum, both fishing boats and old boathouses, barns, barns and residential houses can be viewed. Even the locomotive depot, mill and beehive collection were restored, but this museum was never able to hold exhibitions and display its collections indoors because it lacked space and had no place to store its collections. The museum staff had to freeze during the winter months because the premises were not heated, so the open-air museum was closed in the off-season until now. Realization of the project of an exhibition building meeting modern requirements required both effort and time.

Director of Ventspils Museum Solvita Údre: “It was very difficult for us! Everyone already knows that the construction process of the building lasted six years!”

When, in the sixties of the last century, the director of the museum, Andrejs Šults, convinced the city management that the old wooden fishing boats should be placed in “Kaziņmeža” and the old wooden buildings, which can still be transferred to the museum, should be saved, the local fishermen’s kolkhoz was a big financial supporter. And the new exhibition is dedicated to the fishing traditions, the Libyan lifestyle and the stories of the coastal people. Aija was once a tour leader who often visited this museum with groups. She says: “There is a very wide educational material. Very wide. Through all those wooden buildings, you feel love, you feel the nature that is here, the people who created it.”

The architect of the new museum building is Ija Rudzīte, who conceived the volume as a reference to a docked ship. The director of the museum especially emphasizes the modern restoration workshops and storage rooms for the collection.” The greatest value is the restoration workshops, which are equipped here with very high-quality tools and devices. Other museum employees come to study with us from all over Latvia, we also provide services to other museums.”

More than 300 objects from the museum’s collection can be seen in the exposition, but hundreds of objects are still waiting for their release in the storage room, where we can take a look through the glass window.

The digital elements also help to get involved interactively, looking at, for example, how fishing boats were made, how the roofs of houses were made, and how farm work was done. On the second floor, there is also a nature exhibition with the most characteristic beasts and birds of Kurzeme, whose voices can also be heard in real life.

It is known that during the season the entire territory will be available for viewing – both the museum’s indoor exposition and the open-air outdoor and railway exposition. On the other hand, during the off-season, only the museum’s new permanent indoor exhibition.