The street Brīvības iela and the surroundings of the garrison building

Currently, we are walking down the main street in Zilupe – Brīvības iela, which holds the town’s early roots and has played a significant role in its development. It stretches for about one and a half kilometres and houses nearly all of the town’s essential institutions and landmarks. During the Vitebsk Governorate era, it was a simple rural road used to transport building materials for the railway construction. It is here where the Latvian Army marched east down this road to protect the country’s eastern border in Latvia’s first period of independence. Many local residents who were persecuted, including Jews and Roma from the Zilupe area, also took this street on their way to the railway station and the fate that awaited them.