Historical Latvian Lands
Historical Latvian Lands (Latvian: Latviešu vēsturiskās zemes), also known as Cultural regions of Latvia, are five areas officially recognized as distinct parts of the country: Kurzeme (Courland), Zemgale (Semigallia), Latgale (Latgalia), Vidzeme, and Sēlija (Selonia).
Some of these regions exist mainly as cultural identities, while others reflect historic borders that affected administration in the past.
On 16 June 2021, Latvia’s parliament passed the Historical Latvian Lands Law. The law aims to strengthen national identity and protect the cultural and historical spaces of the five regions. It assigns every parish and town to one of the five regions: Vidzeme, Latgale, Kurzeme, Zemgale, or Sēlija. Riga, the state city, is considered part of Vidzeme, and its unique cultural environment should be supported.
The Latvian nation formed from the cultures of Livonians, Curonians, Latgalians, Selonians, and Semigalians, influenced by Baltic German culture.
The law’s Appendix lists the cities and parishes by historical land. Sometimes Kurzeme, Sēlija, and Zemgale are treated as one region, reflecting Latvia’s old political divisions from 1629–1917, when Kurzeme and Zemgale were together as the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia and later the Courland Governorate, while Vidzeme and Latgale were parts of Livonia and were separate from each other since the 17th century.
With that in mind, there is a three-region view: Kurzeme (including Zemgale and Sēlija), Vidzeme, and Latgale. This division is not commonly used today, but it appears in Latvia’s coat of arms and in the Monument of Freedom in Riga, which show three stars representing those regions united in 1918.
There are also smaller ethnocultural regions in Latvia, such as Maliena, Piebalga, Lejaskurzeme, Suiti parishes, the Livonian Coast (Lībiešu krasts), Leišmale, and Vidiena.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 08:22 (CET).