Libau

Kurland as a possession of the Teutonic Order appears here.

Libau (Latvian: Liepāja) is a town in Kurland (or Courland), today Latvia. A small settlement of natives was recorded here in 1253. Ten years later, in 1263, the Teutonic Knights erected a fortress here. Under them the town thrived. With the Order's demise, in 1561 the town fell into the Duchy of Kurland. It had a formal town charter in 1625. Between 1697-1703 a canal was cut to the sea and a port was built. In 1701 during the Great Northern War, Libau was captured by Charles XII of Sweden but by the end of the war the town had been invaded by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. During the Third Partition of Poland in 1795, it fell to the Russian Empire.

Libau's importance as a port, especially for grain export, was greatly stimulated in 1876 by the construction of the railway from Romny in Ukraine. In 1893 a naval port was built and its function as a naval base persisted through both World Wars, during which the city suffered heavy damage.