Zemgale

Zemgale is named after the Zemgal tribe, who sprang from the Latgals and the Cours and lived in the northern part of Lithuania. Then, as now, it was the most prosperous region of Latvia due, in no small part, to the port at the mouth of the river Lielupe, an important trading post for Danes, Swedes and Goths and mentioned in Scandinavian records dating from as far back as AD 870. During the 12th and 13th centuries Zemgale was itself divided into seven lands, each of whose towns had at least one fortified castle, and all ruled by a single leader. The Zemgals themselves initially welcomed the Crusaders, but then resisted their invasions; it was the last of all the Latvian regions to surrender to them in 1290, after which about 100,000 Zemgals moved to Lithuania.

After the crushing of the Livonian Order in 1561, Zemgale was subsumed into the Dukedom of Kurzeme and the town of Jelgava was home to the Duke. The year 1567 saw the the foundation of various German schools, such as the Anna school for poor German and Latvian children, and the Academia Petrika, an institute of higher education. Like Kurzeme, Zemgale reached the height of its prosperity under the rule of Duke Jekabs in the 17th century: the fertile soil of the region contributed greatly to the growth of the economy, and Jelgava became one of the cultural centres of the Baltics, a position it retains today.

Like that of Kurzeme and, indeed, Latvia as a whole, the culture of Zemgale is the product of the clash between a western European culture of land ownership, copied from the Germans, and the native Latvian traditions with their pagan ethos: peasants, for instance, were given surnames only in 1835. Traditional Zemgale housing - with separate rooms for owners and servants and a built - in fireplace with chimney and hearth - can still be seen today.

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