Prince Leopold Road (Prinz – Leopold Straße)
Infrastructure
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The name of the World War I site (road) is “Prinz – Leopold Straße” – Prince Leopold’s Road. A historical forest road or its location, about 7 km long, began at the junction of the Great Kurfürsten Damm and Kaiser Damm at the so-called Kurland Monument (Kurland Denkmal) and winds through the forest towards Birzgale, connecting with the World War I narrow-gauge railway line: Lāčplēsis – Latgale. West of the road and about 2 km south of the Kurland Monument (Kurland Denkmal) is a World War I shooting range. Today, the Prince Leopold Road can be walked, cycled and driven (in suitable conditions). The road crosses the Konupīte and a tributary of the Žega.
It is believed that German army soldiers, who spent a long time on the left bank of the Daugava River, named this road after Prince Leopold of Bavaria (1846–1930), who led the German and Austro-Hungarian forces on the Eastern Front during World War I.
Used sources and references:
1. https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG223345
2. Historical and other maps: https://vesture.dodies.lv/#m=15/56.71776/24.69606&l=O/KDW
3. Map “1914 – 19 Karte des Weslichen Russlands”
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