Karosta (Naval Port) is a district north of Liepāja city centre that operates as an entirely separate world. Built in the 1890s as an imperial Russian naval base, it covers several square kilometres of officers' mansions, Orthodox churches, fortifications, a canal, breakwaters, and row upon row of Soviet-era apartment blocks — all of it now slowly decaying, still inhabited by perhaps 7,000 people who never quite got absorbed into the rest of the city.
The scale of the place is the first thing that strikes you. This was not a small garrison — it was a complete city-within-a-city, designed to house thousands of sailors and their families. The St. Nicholas Orthodox Cathedral looms over the district, its pale blue domes visible from some distance. The old military prison offers guided tours and, for those who want it, a deliberately uncomfortable overnight stay that simulates (mildly) the conditions of a Soviet holding facility. The Northern Breakwater — a long concrete arm extending into the Baltic — can be walked on calm days and offers sweeping views of the coast.