Northern Forts, Karosta

Karosta Northern Forts - darkometer rating : 2 - A special extra treat near the former garrison town of Karosta , Latvia , featuring spectacular ruins of coastal fortifications dating back to Tsarist Russia , but blown up already before World War One , now in different stages of being eroded away by the sea. As an added bonus there are also creepy underground passages you can explore by torchlight. > More background info > What there is to see > Location > Access and costs > Time required > Combinations with other dark destinations > Combinations with non-dark destinations > Photos More background info: in general see under Karosta . These fortifications surrounding Liepaja were built from 1890 by Tsarist Russia , to which Latvia belonged then, but were only finished within the first decade of the 20th century. They were intended as a bulwark against the threat from Imperial Germany . But then, just a couple of years later, a German-Russian co-operation-and-friendship treaty appeared to make them redundant and, as part of that agreement, they had to be destroyed. What irony, given that this was almost at the dawn of World War One ! Anyway, the coastal gun batteries were dismantled and the barrels taken away, either to other forts (e.g. the 9th Fort in Kaunas) or to be melted down. The concrete fortifications were blown up. Or at least they tried to do so. The explosives weren't so effective and much of the structures remained more or less intact, just unarmed now and not outfitted. Over the past century the sea has done more destructive work than the Russian explosives. Constant surf creates erosion that is eating away at the coastline, washing out the bunkers' foundations.