Ventspils (; ; ; ; ) is a town in northwestern
Latvia in the
Courland historical region of Latvia, the sixth largest city in the country. At the beginning of the 2012, Ventspils had a population of 41,998. It is situated on the
Venta River and the
Baltic Sea, and has an
ice-free port. The city's name literally means "castle on the Venta", referring to the
Livonian Order's castle built alongside the Venta River. Ventspils holds the national record for the highest temperature ever recorded in Latvia with on 4 August 2014.