The steep coastline of Staldzene is a natural monument.
The outcrop Staldzene is located on the coast of the Baltic Sea, 4km northeast from Ventspils. It is a typical abrasion type coast 4 till 8 m high and it reveals different sediment stages of the Baltic Sea. The outcrop is exposed to the erosion from the sea and it is also related to the impact of the nearby Ventspils port. According to the monitoring data of the sea coast, it is estimated that each year the coast is receding by an average of 1 m. Therefore the duration of this outcrop is limited. In the last decades, the height has reduced as well. In the 70`s the steep coast could even reach 12 meters in the highest places.
Staldzene steep coastline was set up as a geological and geomorphological nature monument only in 2001, but its magnificence has long enticed the lovers of nature and coastal idyll. At the northern sea border of the Ventspils City area there is an approximately 400 metres long steep coastline of the Baltic Sea, the height of which, depending on the chosen location, is between 4 and 8 metres. We agree – this is not the only steep coast we know in Latvia, but it is very special to distinguish it from others – there are exposed sediments formed in the various stages of the Baltic Sea. In addition to the blue clay sediments, here is also located the Courland icing moraine, the clay of the end of the ice phase of Latvia as well as 10,000-year-old wood remains were found and more and more. Staldzene steep coast is a place to enjoy the landscape, the various layers of steep outcrops and the coastal forests.
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Staldzene – an old fishing village with some homesteads surviving from the 19th century, lies to the North of Ventspils on the way to the Kolka point.
Here fishermen can still be seen going out to sea, and on calm evenings the scent of dry-cured Baltic plaice wafts through the air. Staldzene is popular with both townsfolk and tourists alike for its walking paths, swimming beach and its dramatic steep coastline. In 2001 after the storm at Staldzene steep coast, the bijouterie and the artefacts of the Bronze Age (7th century B.C.) have been exposed being the biggest such type deposit in the Baltic States, presently exhibited in the Ventspils Museum of the Livonian Order castle.
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