Balvi

Balvi (, Bolvi) is a town in the Balvi Municipality in the Latgale region of Latvia. It was the administrative seat of the district of the same name since 1949; prior to the occupation of Latvia, it was part of Abrene County. The name derives from the stream Bolupīte and the adjacent lake.

History
The first mention of Balvi dates back to 1224. A small wooden church and manor were constructed on the estate of a Polish noblewoman Konstancija Hilsena at the site ca. 1765. When Latgale came under Russian rule in 1772, the estate was granted to the by Catherine II. In 1806, it was passed to the Horozhinsky family, and in 1876, the estate was purchased by the Baltic German Transehe-Roseneck family. The village was separated from the estate in 1915, and Balvi received town rights in 1928, ten years after Latvia proclaimed its independence.

Most of the town's Jews (around 21% of the population) perished in the Stahlecker phase of the Holocaust in August 1941. The retreating Germans set fire to Balvi in July 1944, and the town was rebuilt according to Soviet plans from 1945. Balvi was a center of the Singing Revolution and is vital to Latgalian culture today. The town library in particular is the focus of many cultural events.

Notable people

 * Jānis Bordāns (born 1967), politician, lawyer
 * Inese Laizāne (born 1971), politician, actress
 * Arvis Vilkaste (born 1989), bobsledder