Vecliepāja is the oldest and largest district in Liepāja, stretching south of the city centre along the lakeside. The streets here are lined with wooden houses — some elaborately decorated, many in need of paint — that date from the 18th and 19th centuries, when Liepāja was a prosperous merchant city trading with Germany, Sweden, and Russia.
Walking through Vecliepāja in the late afternoon is one of the better things you can do in Liepāja. The scale is domestic and human, the streets are quiet, and the wooden architecture — carved eaves, painted shutters, small garden plots — is genuinely lovely in an unhurried way. Look for the elaborately decorated examples on the streets running parallel to the lake, where the better-off merchants built their homes. Some are maintained with evident pride; others are sagging romantically under decades of Baltic winters.