History of the village

At the beginning of the 18th century, Kurzeme became a Russian province. In 1830 Wilhelm von Schneider drafted a special regulation on amber mining and the establishment of a coast guard in the Kurzeme province. It said that at first there should be set up an Amber Board with designated officials, a district chief, and a number of coastguards, who would in turn supervise an appropriate number of fishermen and coastguards. According to this regulation, five families in the parish of Pērkone were granted the right to collect amber for the State. In Bernāti, the family of Čauri acquired these rights. The evidence of this is a contract signed on 6 June 1830 with the Procurement Department of the State Chamber of the Russian Ministry of Finance. The contract described in detail the duties of the amber collectors and at the end, they had to sign an oath – “I, Čaure Jānis, the son of Krišs, from the parish of Pērkone, swear by Almighty God that I want and need to be faithful and obedient to the

brightest Grace, my most powerful Ruler, follow the weather and winds, to be always observant, to wash and collect amber, and to be unwearied day and night, summer and winter, in all weathers, storms or winds. And if it were necessary, I would dig it out of the mountain and with a clear conscience, leaving nothing of it to myself, neither small nor great, would not give the least particle of it to anybody, nor let anybody take it, but would present it willingly and honestly to the coastguard. I would not allow my wife or my children, or my people, or any other person, take away and to waste the smallest particle, either secretly or in plain sight, but to deliver all this amber to my most gracious sovereign in the most honourable way, to be written in the account. I swear to show obedience to the wardens and other coastguards and to do all that concerns the interests of his Imperial Highness, voluntarily and unreservedly follow the regulations of the coast. And may the God and his holy name help me there.”

27 September 1924, the first President of Latvia Jānis Čakste visited Bernāti and said, “There must be a resort here”. These words are engraved in a memorial stone erected in Bernāti, on top of an inland dune covered with tall pine trees. This wish was not destined to come true as the war started. Today, the Nature Park “Bernāti” has been established here and attracts not only local people but also travellers from Europe and other parts of the world.

You may wonder, who was the first person to come up with the idea of creating a resort in Bernāti? It is possible that this interest in Bernāti emerged due to its vicinity to Liepāja, or more precisely, it was close to one of Latvia’s largest cities and its port. Since the deepening of the Liepāja Port and the rapid growth of trade relations, Liepāja has been developing rapidly. Then a wealthy class emerged, and they looked for entertainment not only in the city but also looked for recreational opportunities outside the city in the summers. In the second half of the 19th century, the industry began to develop in Liepāja, there was the Liepaja-Romna railway opened, and resort and bathing establishments were opened. It encouraged the foreign merchants and aristocracy to come to the city. Jēkabs Janševskis in his historical novel “Dzimtene” mentions that three Russian emperors visited and hunted in this area in the middle of the 19th century. A doctor in Liepaja had an idea to establish a sanatorium in the beautiful forests, but it was not made into reality because he was transferred to Karalauči. According to the information on www.periodika.lv, on 20 August 1881 the Crown Property Board of the Baltic Governorate announced an auction of ten rents for building plots. Each plot was 800 square metres large and located in the 13th quarter of the Crown Forest, close to the Bernāti tavern, 15 versts South of Liepāja. It is not known what happened to these plots, but 46 more plots for villa development were separated from the Crown Forest and rented out to various persons in 1897.

At the very beginning of the 20th century, Liepāja City Councillor K. Burkevics had the idea to establish a railway between Liepāja and Palanga, later it was planned to connect it with Mēmele (now Klaipėda).

This railway was meant to go through Bernāti, Mietrags, Pape and further to Paurupe (Rucava). Further via Sventaja to Palanga. A branch of rail to Lukne was also in mind. The railway project envisaged that the rails would go through large, wild forests, therefore it would be possible to develop logging and transportation of timber to Liepaja. In addition, the Liepāja–Mietrags section was meant to be intensively used for holidaymakers. A railway construction company was founded by the beforehand mentioned Burkevics, the lawyer Mellville from Liepāja, the engineer Adolf Hemme from Berlin and Baron Albert von Stempel from Laukžeme in Lithuania. Newspapers of 1 August 1908, including the “Dzimtenes vēstnesis”, report:

“In the case of the Liepāja Third Railway, a report has arrived from Saint Petersburg: The project for the construction of the Liepaja Third or Southern Railway, after having been approved by the Council of Ministers as well as the State Council, was approved by the Supreme Court on 14 July this year in the name of former State Councillor K. Burkevics. This new railway, which is currently estimated to reach Rucava, 43 versts South of Liepaja, will later extend to Lithuania and the Prussian border.”

A public limited company had already been set up and shares had been traded to make this idea into reality. Unfortunately, the project was never implemented. It is also known that in 1909 the contracts with those who had rented the 46 plots for the construction of villas in 1897 were broken because no villas were built in twelve years due to the poor access roads and the plots were given to Burkevics. Further plans were disrupted by the First World War.

When the independent State of Latvia was established in the early 1920s, the idea to build a resort in Bernāti was revived. On May 5 1923, the owner of “Pēterpils” hotel in Liepāja, Jēkabs Zelmenis, called a meeting of public workers in Liepāja “Kūrmāja” Hall to decide on the establishment of a society that would take care of the construction of bathing places in Liepāja and the establishment of the Bernāti resort.

Until the early 20th century, the villagers fished in small coastal boats. At the turn of the century, some villagers went to schools and started working on large passenger and merchant ships. Šauris Miķelis, around 1905, was working on a Russia–America passenger line steamship called RUSSIA. Later (around 1911), Jēkabs Smiltnieks worked on a merchant ship and travelled around the world. Unfortunately, he died in a shipwreck.

During the First World War, many villagers fled from Latvia. It is known that Jānis Smiltnieks found refuge and worked in Yaroslavl, and his cousin worked in Vitebsk.

The before-mentioned Šauris Miķelis worked on ships and wrote letters from the far north – Archangelsk.

With the establishment of independent Latvia, the villagers returned to their homeland and started farming in their own lands. The freedom and experience of the world also encouraged other villagers to educate themselves.The fishermen strived to learn knowledge of maritime, acquired the right to drive motorboats and on 7 November 1922 they founded the Fishing Society “Vilnis”.

That forced local fishermen to think about switching to more modern fishing methods. Those who could not keep up with the contemporary trends were forced to give up fishing. Vilis Veldre writes in his book “Life by the Sea” in 1935 that “many of the fishermen in the village of Bernāti had become farmers and gardeners, they take their boats out to sea only when they do not need to drive a plough through a furrow, and they row only when they do not need to lift a scythe or a garden spade. You cannot say it about everyone because according to the official statistics in Bernāti and Pērkone sea coast have about 6 real fishermen for every 100 semi-fishermen”.

Then the Second World War broke out, with all its consequences.

After the war, Latvia was incorporated into the USSR and the Communist Party took control of all everyday life. The villagers had to found a fishing artel and it was named “Sarkanais karogs” or “The Red Flag”. Klāvs Dravenieks was elected as the head of the Artel. To have someone to work with, they invited a boat building specialist Jānis Rēķis from Medze. A boat-building workshop was set up in the Dravenieki drying-house.