Talsi

Talsi is a town in the Courland region of western Latvia and the administrative centre of Talsi Municipality, with a population of roughly nine thousand in recent official estimates. It is known as the green pearl of Courland because it is spread over nine hills and two lakes, and the old hill fort on Pilskalns, a hill about thirty-two metres high at the centre of the town, marks the site where Curonians lived from at least the tenth century. Talsi is first mentioned in written sources in 1231, and a castle was built there in the late thirteenth century under German rule. The town passed to the Russian Empire in 1795 along with the rest of Courland, received town rights in 1917, and has a regional museum in a former manor house and churches of several Christian denominations.