Daugavpils

Daugavpils is a state city in south-eastern Latvia, located on the banks of the Daugava River, from which the city gets its name. The parts of the city north of the river belong to the historical Latvian region of Latgale, and those to the south lie in Selonia. It is the second-largest city in the country after the capital Riga, which is located some 230 kilometres to its north-west.Daugavpils is located relatively close to Belarus and Lithuania, and some 120 km from the Latvian border with Russia. Daugavpils is a major railway junction and industrial centre and was an historically important garrison city lying approximately midway between Riga and Minsk, and between Warsaw and Saint Petersburg.

Daugavpils, then Dyneburg, was the capital of Polish Livonia while in Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Following the first partition of Poland in 1772, the city became part of the Russian Empire.