Rūjiena
Rūjiena is the northernmost town in Latvia, located at the border between Latvia and Estonia. Rūjiena is the administrative centre of Rūjiena territorial division that unites 5 parishes (Ipiķi, Jeri, Lode, Vilpulka and Rūjiena) and is part of Valmiera municipality government administrative territory. 95% of inhabitants are Latvian, other nationalities include Russian, Estonian, Ukrainian etc. The population of Rūjiena has decreased by 16.9 per cent over the last 10 years (in 2013 – 3,287 inhabitants), which sadly is in line with the overall trend in Latvia.
In the Culture and Resilience Action plan the top priority is to set the conditions for an open, democratic and civically active society and socially resilient community. In essence – to know our neighbour’s name and to be sure that we can turn to them when we face a crisis. Starting small – from getting to know our neighbours, to community activities in villages and rural areas, and finally, cooperating with the cross-border community in Estonia, we plan to build a new model of cooperation based in the bottom-up principle with the aid of municipality.
The second priority is to build intergenerational dialogue, skills and knowledge transfer, taking advantage of the fact that Rūjiena is a “seniors’ town” and their knowledge can be packaged in a modern, interesting way for young people.
Our third priority is to strengthen people’s sense of belonging, thus ensuring in the long term that they do not leave regions and rural places, essentially finding them interesting and attractive, seeing an untapped potential rather than a perpetual struggle in the countryside. People in rural areas already have to look for extra motivation to be there – a title like BSR Cultural Pearls tells the community that they are relevant, taken seriously and are noticed. They feel proud of the place, the progress and creation of their plans and visions, and it can even encourage them to return.
Activities & Events
For more information visit: www.valmierasnovads.lv
Rūjiena starts impleneting th CuReAP by a clean-up day
On Saturday, 27 April 2024, the first event from the Rūjiena’s Culture and Resilience action plan took place – a clean-up day to start working on the revitalization on the courtyard based in 8 Rīga Street, with the plan to develop it into a new meeting place for the community.
There is a plan together make this yard a meeting place for everyone. Create a small community garden with the bed of beets – the main ingredient of the famous Rūjiena salad, is foreseen also as a place for exhibitions, concerts, meet-up to exchange new recipes or get an advice – these are just a few ideas of what could citizens could do together in the courtyard of Rīga Street 8.
Local ceremony in Rūjiena
A bright, loud and generations unifying event took place in Rūjiena – the Ice Cream Festival and Rūjiena’s name day celebrations. During the celebration, in the presence of residents of Rūjiena and guests from far and near, the city was awarded the title “BSR Cultural Pearl 2024”.
The award was presented by Dr. Kazimierz Musiał representing the Council of Baltic Sea States (CBSS), leading partner of the Interreg Baltic Sea region program project “Cultural pearls of the Baltic Sea region for more sustainable cities and regions”.
The Youth Day and The Quiz Game “Meet you neighbour” engages locals in Rūjiena
To address the challenge of young people leaving the city, to promote active involvement and ownership as well as strengthen a sense of belonging and developing mutual trust, on 31 May the Youth Day took place in Rūjiena.
But in order to build closer ties between residents – to get to know neighbours in neighbouring houses, on 13 June in Rīgas Street 8, the quarter to be developed as a new gathering place for the locals, the first event of the Quiz games series “Meet your neighbour” took place. The inhabitants of Rūjiena and Valmiera Municipality were invited to participate to get to know each other and the place they come from or live in.
Postcards from the border: Exhibition empowering communities on both sides
Every year on August 23, at the Latvian-Estonian border point Unguriņi-Lilli, events dedicated to the Baltic Way (Baltic chain) – a peaceful political demonstration in 1989 showing the world the courage, unity, and resilience of the Baltic nations, marking one of the brightest examples of cooperation between neighbouring countries in world history. Celebrating the 35th anniversary of the Baltic Way, the exhibition “Postcards from the border” was opened.
The initiative to the exhibition stems from the Culture and Resilience Action Plan of Rūjiena – BSR Culture Pearl 2024 under the theme of “Meet Your Neighbour”. As Anna Paula Gruzdiņa, author of the interviews and literary editor of the exhibition, reveals: “one of the goals we are trying to achieve with the Cultural Pearl title is to strengthen the concept of neighbours and not only on the scale of the city of Rūjiena, but also in the context of the residents of the Latvian-Estonian border.”
