Mangalsala trails

Mangalsala, which is today a northeastern suburb of Riga, has historically been rich in sandy dunes, pine forests, flooded meadows and swampy depressions. Until the middle of the 16th century, the Daugava flowed into the sea along the bed of the present Vecdaugava, until the spring floods formed the current mouth of the sea. At the end of the 19th century, military infrastructure began to form on Mangalsala with coastal artillery batteries and fortifications, which served until the 1990s, when the Soviet occupation troops left Mangalsala during the restoration of Latvia's independence.