Latvia Courland

Aizpute is a town in western Latvia's Aizpute municipality in the valley of Tebra River. The territory of modern Aizpute was inhabited by ancient Curonians since the 9th century. St. John Lutheran church has been built on the curonian hillfort. In the 13th century during the Livonian crusade, the territory of Aizpute was conquered by German crusaders. Already in 1248 the master of the Livonian Order Dietrich von Gruningen ordered the building of a stone castle in Aizpute, which remains to this day one of the town's most significant attractions, besides its historic center.