What is it?

Daugavpils is Latvia's second-largest city and the beating heart of Latgale, a borderland region where Latvian, Russian, Polish, Belarusian and Jewish histories have layered on top of one another for centuries. Its centrepiece is the vast Daugavpils Fortress, a sprawling early 19th-century Russian imperial citadel — the only one of its kind preserved intact in Northern Europe — where crumbling ramparts, cobbled courtyards and pastel barracks now house the luminous Mark Rothko Art Centre, dedicated to the abstract expressionist born here in 1903 as Markus Rothkowitz. In the compact centre you'll find one of Europe's finest concentrations of red-brick and Art Nouveau architecture, rattling Soviet-era trams painted in cheerful colours, and the extraordinary Church Hill, where Catholic, Lutheran, Orthodox and Old Believer churches stand almost shoulder to shoulder. Add the last operating shot tower in Europe, a countryside of lakes and Latgale ceramics workshops, and a bilingual streetscape where Russian is heard more often than Latvian, and you have a city that feels like nowhere else in the EU. It is unpolished, unhurried, and deeply atmospheric — a place travellers stumble into and remember far longer than they expected.

Where is it?

Daugavpils sits in southeastern Latvia's Latgale region, on the banks of the Daugava River, just a short drive from both the Lithuanian and Belarusian borders and around 230 km southeast of Riga. Base yourself in the compact centre for the Art Nouveau streets and Church Hill, then head to the fortress on the city's northwestern edge; day trips reach the Daugava Loki Nature Park, Silene Nature Park and the pilgrimage basilica at Aglona. Late spring through early autumn (May to September) is loveliest, when the fortress lawns green up and riverside terraces open, while December brings a quiet, snow-dusted charm.

What makes it worth it?

Few places in Europe deliver such a strong sense of standing at a cultural crossroads. Walking the empty ramparts of the fortress at dusk, with swifts wheeling over the Daugava and grass pushing through parade-ground cobbles, is genuinely haunting — visitors often describe it as 'a whole city inside a city, half-abandoned and utterly alive'. Inside the Rothko Centre, standing before original canvases by an artist who left this town as a child and never returned, is a quietly moving collision of local and global. Travellers consistently say Daugavpils exceeded every expectation: 'I came for an afternoon and stayed three days.' You'll remember the tram bells, the smell of rye bread and smoked cheese at the central market, the four church spires against a wide Latgalian sky — and the feeling of having found somewhere the crowds simply haven't reached.

How accessible is it?

Very easy and remarkably affordable. Direct trains from Riga take around 3 to 3.5 hours and cost roughly €8–12 each way, with buses similarly priced; driving takes about 3 hours on good roads. Latvia is in the EU and Schengen zone, so most Western travellers need no visa, and the currency is the euro — expect €35–70 a night for comfortable hotels, €8–15 for a hearty restaurant meal, and museum entry of just a few euros (the Rothko Centre is around €10–15 including exhibitions). The city is flat and walkable with an inexpensive tram network, making it comfortable for families, older travellers and those with limited mobility, though some fortress paths are cobbled and uneven. No booking is essential outside major festival weekends, but check Rothko Centre opening days in advance, and note that English is less widely spoken than in Riga — a few words of Russian or Latvian, or a translation app, goes a long way.