The diaspora’s treasure hunt series “My treasure in Latvia”

As the European Language Day approaches, the Latvian Language Agency unveils the diaspora’s treasure hunt series “My treasure in Latvia” on September 24, offering participants a unique treasure hunting competition. The Latvians of the diaspora have created and authored 33 hiding places in Latvia. We challenge you to find as many hidden caches in this series as you can by October 22 and win valuable prizes!

Unveiling of the competition “My treasure in Latvia” here.

Descriptions of the hiding places: https://coord.info/BMA77M8.

Dace Dalbiņa, Deputy Director of the Latvian Language Agency, shares the story of how the idea for a treasure hunt was conceived: “The Latvian language agency has always worked closely with the diaspora. We share a common goal – to maintain the Latvian language and a feeling of affiliation with Latvia in their home countries, as well as to provide support to the families who return to Latvia. So we try to come up with more and more engaging, interesting forms of cooperation, and this is how the idea of ​​the treasure hunt came about – in hopes that it would strengthen the emotional connection people have with Latvia, giving them an opportunity to learn about the cultural environment and nature of Latvia by making them tell a personal story about an important place they have there.”

Ēriks Švarcs from Adelaide in Australia writes: “We became the godparents of the Ņemnaudu mill’s hiding place – I liked the mill’s name and location. Our grandfather was a miller, too. We plan to visit the place and take a lot of photos!”

The authors of these hiding places are Latvians from 18 countries – Australia, Great Britain, Greece, Georgia, Ireland, Czech Republic, Canada, Sweden, Germany, USA, Estonia, New Zealand, Scotland, Norway, Spain, Austria, France, and Switzerland. The name of each diaspora family is mentioned in every hiding place.

The hiding places begin with the 33 letters of the Latvian alphabet: Ape Witches’ Cliffs, Ārciems’ open-air church, Bajārkrogs’ mill, Ciskoda’s lake, Černauska’s oak tree, Dronku Devil’s Stone, Embūte church, Ēdole castle, Fitinghofs’ manor park, Gulbīši, Ģipšakmens (Gypsum) mine in Salaspils, Hoftenberga manor, Imula bridge, Īslīce, Jānis Zābers’ museum, Kalna (Hill) line, Ķesterciems’ pines, Lipaiķi hillfort, Ļaudona wool factory, Malnava White Gates, Nordeķi manor, Ņemnaudu mill, Ostrova observation tower, Pasaule in Liepāja, Ruskulova manor park, Stelbu spring, Šķēde manor, Tibetan pagoda, Unguri church, Ūziņi windmill, Velna (Devil’s) Gates in Jaungulbene, Zviedru (Swedish) Gates, Žagatu cliff.