Zūras combines a distinctive manor house avenue with local history and practical hands-on activities. This gives visitors several ways to explore the area: its landscape and trees, objects from work and everyday life, and stories that invite visitors to try traditional techniques for themselves. These themes are especially evident in the avenue, the Zūru-Novadpētniecības-Exposition and the activities involving textiles and food.

The double-row manor house avenue

The avenue at Zūru Manor is Latvia’s longest double-row avenue and a protected natural monument of national importance. Two rows of lime trees grow on each side of the road; ash trees and horse chestnuts are also planted at intervals. The avenue is therefore defined not only by its double-row layout, but also by the variety of tree species. When looking at the trees, visitors can take in both features: the lime rows as a recurring pattern and the other species planted at intervals.

Local history and regional themes

Latvia’s first sugar factory was built in Zūras. The story “Cukurgalvas” offers a different way to explore the history of sugar, tracing the journey of a sugar beet seed to white sugar. Together, these two themes provide both a historical and an illustrative perspective on sugar, though they tell different stories.

The Zūru-Novadpētniecības-Exposition, formerly the Zūru Museum, opened in 1998. Its exhibits include old tools and household and furnishing items. These groups of objects bring together work and domestic life. The collection also covers events in Vārves pagasts and Ventspils novads. This places local history in a broader regional context, while objects from work and home offer a tangible connection to everyday life.

Try crafts and food-making for yourself

The story “From Fibre to Fabric” introduces sheep farming and flax cultivation, and gives visitors the chance to card, spin, ply, wind and weave for themselves. These activities focus on the journey from fibre to finished fabric: exploring the raw materials leads to a practical look at how they are processed. This sets the story apart from simply viewing tools and focuses attention on the individual tasks.

Visitors can also get hands-on with the food-related activities, using different ingredients to make different things. At the “Rūķu darbnīca” workshop, visitors can grind grain, knead white bread dough and bake bread themselves. “Cukurgalvas”, by contrast, is about sweets that can be made in different varieties using old recipes. Bread and sweets thus offer two distinct ways to take part: processing grain into baked white bread, or making different sweets from traditional recipes.

This variety makes it easy to choose a focus: the avenue showcases a protected landscape feature, the exposition explores the history of work and everyday life, and the hands-on stories focus on specific production processes. Visitors interested in textiles can follow the process from fibre to fabric; those more interested in food can choose between bread and sweets. The local history of sugar adds another historical dimension to these practical activities.

Discover more destinations: Miķeļtornis, Ventspils, Vendzavas, Lielirbe, Liepene, Usma, Ventava, Vārve.

Back to the main travel guide: Ventspils.