A Small National Presence with Clear Meaning
At present, Latvia has two cities in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, and the official UNESCO pages identify them clearly: Tukums in the field of Literature since 2023, and Daugavpils in the field of Design since 2025. I double-checked the current UNESCO city profiles and did not find any other Latvian city listed in the network at this time. That matters because the network is selective, and membership is not simply an honorary label. UNESCO presents it as a framework for cooperation among cities that place creativity and cultural industries at the center of local development. In other words, these designations are meant to reflect long-term priorities, not just occasional festivals or branding campaigns. For Latvia, this means that its current presence in the network is concentrated but distinct: one city recognized for literature, another for design. Rather than spreading recognition thinly, the current picture shows two cities representing two strong and very different cultural pathways within the country’s wider identity.

Why UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network Matters at All
The UNESCO Creative Cities Network was launched in 2004 to connect cities that treat creativity as a strategic factor in sustainable urban development, and today it has grown into a large international framework spanning hundreds of cities and eight creative fields. UNESCO’s own overview explains that these cities are expected to integrate culture and creativity into local development plans while also cooperating internationally. That broader purpose is important when looking at Latvia’s role. The point is not only that a city has a literary tradition or a design school. The point is that the city can show how these strengths function inside education, public life, urban space, professional training, and cultural exchange. This makes the network especially relevant for smaller countries, where a single city can become a very visible ambassador for a specific cultural approach. In Latvia’s case, Tukums and Daugavpils do not represent the same type of creative identity. One is built around literary culture and its public presence; the other around design, adaptive reuse, and urban transformation. That difference gives Latvia’s current position in the network real depth.

Tukums and the Literary Identity of a Small City
Tukums became a UNESCO Creative City of Literature in 2023, and UNESCO’s own description makes clear that the designation is tied not only to books in the abstract, but to the way literature shapes the city’s identity, education, and physical environment. UNESCO describes Tukums as a town of writers, artisans, and painters, but stresses that literature stands at the forefront of how the city understands itself. The profile also highlights the connection between literature and nature in Tukums, noting that this relationship appears in the urban environment, parks, and even forests. Just as important is the educational dimension. UNESCO points to the role of literature at all levels of learning and specifically mentions Tukums Rainis State Gymnasium as an especially strong model in this field. The city’s literary atmosphere is also reinforced by cultural events and sites, including the Tukums Rose Festival, “Heart on the Platform,” “Prose Fermentation,” Tukku Magi, the Werewolves’ Trail, and Ziedonis Garden in Mālkalns. In Tukums, literature is presented not as a museum object, but as a civic and living presence.

Why Daugavpils Entered the Network Through Design
Daugavpils joined the network in 2025 as a UNESCO Creative City of Design, and its official profile presents the city as a place where design is closely tied to industrial heritage, architectural character, and the reuse of urban space. UNESCO emphasizes that design plays a central role in the city’s transformation, linking former industrial structures, public spaces, and contemporary creative practice. This is a particularly strong fit for Daugavpils because the city’s built environment already carries visible layers of industrial and civic history. UNESCO highlights the presence of engineering infrastructure, red brick factories, and a historic center where classic and eclectic architecture coexist with more contemporary design interventions. The city’s application was not framed only in aesthetic terms. UNESCO also points to measurable creative-sector activity, noting over 4,000 economically active enterprises in 2023, around 8 percent of them in professional, scientific, and technical services including design-related work, along with 190 registered cultural enterprises active across design, architecture, crafts, and media. This gives Daugavpils a profile rooted in both place and professional capacity.

Institutions, Education, and the Practical Side of Recognition
What makes both Latvian member cities convincing is that their UNESCO profiles are anchored in institutions and ongoing cultural practice rather than vague promotional language. In Tukums, the literature designation is connected to schools, festivals, heritage, and a broader local environment where literary culture is made visible and participatory. In Daugavpils, the design designation is supported by an ecosystem that UNESCO names directly: the Design and Art Secondary School “Saules skola,” the Rothko Museum, the Centre of Technics and Industrial Design “Engineering Arsenal,” as well as business incubators and municipal cultural institutions. UNESCO also notes Daugavpils’ stated commitments as a Creative City of Design, including preserving local industrial design heritage, turning historical industrial sites into creative hubs, advancing sustainable urban design through public-space regeneration, and strengthening the creative economy through fashion, product design, and digital innovation. Tukums, for its part, commits itself to integrating literature into education, preserving and developing its literary identity, and collaborating with other Creative Cities. In both cases, recognition is tied to concrete cultural infrastructure and declared long-term priorities.

What Latvia’s Current UNESCO Picture Really Shows
Latvia’s current role in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network is still numerically small, but culturally it is already quite telling. Tukums and Daugavpils represent two different models of how a Latvian city can enter an international cultural framework without losing its local specificity. Tukums shows how a smaller town can build a public identity around literature, education, folklore memory, and creative events. Daugavpils shows how a larger regional city can frame design as part of regeneration, adaptive reuse, vocational training, and a growing creative economy. Together, they present Latvia not through a single national slogan, but through two distinct urban languages. That is probably the most interesting part of the story. Latvia’s place in the network is not based on volume. It is based on clarity. As of now, the official UNESCO record points to two Latvian member cities and no more: Tukums and Daugavpils. But even with only two entries, the country already appears in the network through two fields that say a great deal about Latvian cultural seriousness, local identity, and creative ambition.