your free PDF travel guide for Livonia
best time to go
Wikipedia says:
This article is about the region in Europe. For other uses see Livonia (disambiguation).
Livonia (Līvõmō, Latvian and Livonija; Estonian: Liivimaa; Finnish: Liivinmaa; German and Swedish: Livland; Polish: Liwlandia; Лифляндия / Liflyandiya) was once the land of the Finnic Livonians inhabiting the principal ancient Livonian County Metsepole with it's center at Turaida. The most prominent ruler of the ancient Livonia was Caupo of Turaida.
During the Livonian Crusade ancient Livonia was colonized by the Livonian Brothers of the Sword, later called Livonian Order and the name Livonia became to designate a much broader territory: Livonian Confederation on the eastern coasts of the Baltic Sea, in present-day Latvia and Estonia. Its frontiers are the Gulf of Riga and the Gulf of Finland in the north-west, Lake Peipus and Russia to the east, and Lithuania to the south.
Livonia was inhabited by various Baltic and Finnic peoples, ruled by an upper class of Baltic Germans. Over the course of time some nobles were polonized into the Polish-Lithuanian nobility (Szlachta) or russified into the Russian nobility (Dvoryanstvo). (...) more....


