Jēkabpils has always been the crossroads of Zemgale, Latgale, Vidzeme as well as Sēlija regions. Only the river Daugava has remained unchanged since the old times – the River of Fate of our ancestors, waving 93 km through the city and district.

Jēkabpils was established at the beginning of the 17th century as a settlement of the Old Believers persecuted in Russia, so-called sloboda, on the left coast of the Daugava at Sala’s inn. Development of the city was facilitated by the barge route on the river. The barge haulers were forced to load their cargo into wagons as barges could not travel further due to Daugava’s falls. In 1670 the Sala’s inn settlement was granted the status of a city and renamed Jēkabpils (Jakobstadt) to honour its founder Jacob, the duke of Kurzeme.

The oldest record mentioning Krustpils is dated 1237 when Riga’s bishop Nicholas de Magdeburg built a Kreutzburg castle. In 1585 Stefan Batory, the king of Poland, granted Krustpils to Nicholas Korf. The only successor of the castle owners Jutta von Korf from Germany regularly maintains contacts with the present owners of the castle and visits the Krustpils castle.