Roja is a village in Kurzeme, the center of Roja district. It is
located on the western shore of the Gulf of Riga, where the Roja
River flows into the bay (the Roja port is located at the mouth), at
the intersection of the P131 and P126 motorways, 37 km from Talsi
and 126 km from Riga.
The port of Roja is the seventh largest
port in Latvia in terms of cargo turnover (2008). The village has a
secondary school, music and art school, kindergarten, Roja Cultural
Center, library, Sea Fishing Museum, sports center, Roja Lutheran
Church as well as Roja Catholic Church.
The RojaL Summer Film
Festival has been taking place in Roja since 2011, where films are
also shown on screen at the beach.
The origin of the word Roja is related to the name of the Roja estuary in Liv (freely translated - "Duļķupe").
Until the 13th century,
the Roja area was located in the Liv-inhabited land of Vanema. It
was first mentioned in written sources in 1387 in the report of the
Archbishop of Riga as a port and trade center, when together with
Roņu Island it belonged to the Dundaga parish district of the Riga
Cathedral. In 1434 the county was annexed to the lands of the
diocese of Kurzeme. In the 16th century, Roja was one of the three
ports of Kurzeme, which was granted the right to send goods abroad.
In 1873, the Lubezere Maritime School was founded in Roja.
In
1969, Roja was granted the rights of an urban village. In the second
half of the 20th century, Roja was the second largest settlement in
the Talsi district.