A 32-metre-diameter parabolic radio telescope hidden deep in the pine forest about 30 km north of Ventspils — one of the largest in northern Europe and a piece of pure Cold War legacy. Built secretly in the 1960s as a Soviet electronic-intelligence facility, it was abandoned in 1994 and rescued by the Latvian academic community, which converted it into the Ventspils International Radio Astronomy Centre (VIRAC).
Guided tours run from the small visitor centre, including a climb up to the antenna platform when weather allows. The remoteness, the rust-streaked structure, the abandoned military village nearby — Irbene is a powerful piece of Latvian post-Soviet atmosphere as well as a working scientific instrument.