Regions of Latvia – Vidzeme

Coat of arms of the Vidzeme region. Above it, the name of the issuing state "LATVIJA" is engraved; below the arms, the inscription "VIDZEME". The issue year "2016" appears on the right.

Vidzeme is the largest of Latvia's four historical regions and stretches across the north and east of the country, from the coast of the Gulf of Riga to the border with Estonia and Russia. Its name derives from the Latvian word for "middle of the lands", aptly describing this landscape's geographic and cultural significance. Vidzeme encompasses extensive forests, the Gauja National Park with its sandstone cliffs and the Gauja river valley, and historically significant towns such as Cēsis and Valmiera, which were part of the Livonian network of Hanseatic towns in the Middle Ages. For centuries the region was the scene of shifting rule — Teutonic Knights, the Swedish crown and the Russian Tsarist Empire all left their mark here before Vidzeme became part of independent Latvia in 1918.

Culturally, Vidzeme is regarded as one of the cradles of Latvian national identity. The Gauja valley was a centre of the 19th-century Latvian National Awakening, and many key figures of Latvian literature and folklore are connected to this region. Vidzeme's coat of arms, which derives from the medieval coat of arms of the Archbishopric of Riga, is a symbol of this long history. With the 2-euro commemorative coin of 2016, Latvia honours Vidzeme as part of its "Regions of Latvia" series, which presents all four historical parts of the country.