Great Amber Webcam – Watch Liepaja’s Concert Hall

The Great Amber Webcam looks across a road junction at the Great Amber concert hall in Liepaja, the port city on Latvia’s Baltic coast. The hall takes up the left of the frame, a leaning drum of amber-colored glass with a lattice staircase climbing to a walkway along its side and a row of flagpoles by the entrance. A roundabout with a planted island sits in front, with cars and delivery vans working their way around it, and a large car park fills the right side of the picture. Behind the junction stand low wooden houses with red tiled roofs, a line of trees and the taller facades of the city center. The light on the glass shifts through the day, and after dark the whole building is lit in orange.

About the Great Amber Concert Hall

Great Amber, Lielais Dzintars in Latvian, stands at 8 Radio Street in Vecliepaja, the old part of Liepaja. Volker Giencke & Company Architects of Graz, Austria, won the international design competition for it at the end of 2003. Construction reached its highest point, 30 meters (98 feet), at the topping-out ceremony on 30 August 2014, and the eight-story building was commissioned on 12 August 2015 before opening to the public that November. The Baltic Times compared the finished hall to a shard of amber pushing up out of the ground, and that is close to how it reads on camera: a single leaning mass of colored glass that dwarfs the low houses beyond the roundabout.

Inside are three performance spaces: the Great Hall with 1,010 seats, a Chamber Hall for 200 and an Experimental Stage for 150. The building is home to the Liepaja Symphony Amber Sound Orchestra, established in 1881 as one of the first philharmonic orchestras in the Baltics, and to the Emils Melngailis Liepaja Music Secondary School.

Liepaja had 66,746 residents in 2026, which makes it the third-largest city in Latvia after Riga and Daugavpils. The Trade Channel runs through the middle of town, linking Lake Liepaja to the Baltic Sea and dividing the city into southern and northern parts. Locals call it the city where the wind is born.

Weather and Climate in Liepaja

January averages a high of 1.1 C (34 F) and a low of minus 3.4 C (26 F), and at this latitude the city gets only about seven hours of daylight in late December, so the hall’s orange lighting is often on show by late afternoon. Snow can settle on the planted island in the roundabout and on the rows of parked cars. Spring is cool, with April averaging 10.3 C (51 F) by day and 2.3 C (36 F) at night.

July is the warmest month, with average highs of 21.6 C (71 F) and lows of 13.8 C (57 F), and close to 18 hours of daylight around the June solstice keeps the junction lit well into the evening. October still averages 11.3 C (52 F) by day and 5.4 C (42 F) at night, and by late October the Great Amber Webcam shows yellow leaves on the trees around the car park. The city records about 693 millimeters (27.3 inches) of precipitation and roughly 2,000 hours of sunshine a year.

Things to Do Near the Great Amber Concert Hall

Holy Trinity Cathedral holds the world’s largest unreconstructed mechanical organ, counted as the most significant work of 18th-century art in Liepaja. It is played during the International Organ Music Festival each September, and you can climb the cathedral’s 55-meter (180-foot) tower for views over the city. Peter’s Market (Petertirgus) is the central market, the Liepaja Museum keeps works by applied art masters, and the Latvian Musicians’ Walk of Fame sits beside a concert stage. Jurmala Park, the seaside park, has a monument to sailors and fishermen lost at sea and the Peldu Institution bath house, and the coast beyond it is an unbroken sandy beach backed by dunes.

At the northern end of the city, Karosta was built for the Russian army and later became a closed Soviet military area. Its former military prison, Karosta Prison, is now a museum where “guards” lead hourly tours, and visitors can even spend the night in a cell. St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Naval Cathedral, built between 1901 and 1903 to a design by Vasily Kosyakov, stands in the same district. You can walk the full length of the Northern Breakwater, about 1.8 kilometers (1.1 miles), and the Northern Forts are close by.

Similar Webcams You Might Like

More cameras from Latvia, starting a few streets away in central Liepaja:

• Rose Square Liepaja Webcam
• Riga Webcam
• Cesis Webcam

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is the Great Amber concert hall located?

The hall is at 8 Radio Street in Vecliepaja, the old part of Liepaja, a port city on the Baltic coast of western Latvia. Liepaja lies about 195 kilometers (121 miles) west-southwest of Riga in a straight line.

What can you see on the Great Amber Webcam?

The camera looks across a roundabout at the concert hall’s leaning amber glass walls, its lattice staircase and walkway, and the flagpoles by the entrance. A large car park fills the right of the frame, and low houses with tiled roofs, trees and the taller buildings of central Liepaja form the skyline.

What is the weather like in Liepaja?

Liepaja has cold winters and mild summers. January averages minus 3.4 to 1.1 C (26 to 34 F), July averages 13.8 to 21.6 C (57 to 71 F), and the city gets about 693 millimeters (27.3 inches) of precipitation a year.

Who designed the Great Amber concert hall in Liepaja?

The Austrian practice Volker Giencke & Company Architects, based in Graz, won the international competition for the hall at the end of 2003. The building was commissioned on 12 August 2015 and opened to the public in November 2015.

How many seats does the Great Amber concert hall have?

The Great Hall seats 1,010 people. The building also has a 200-seat Chamber Hall and an Experimental Stage for 150.

Why is the Liepaja concert hall called Great Amber?

Lielais Dzintars means Great Amber in Latvian, after the amber-colored glass that wraps the building. After dark the facade is lit in orange, so at night the hall glows like a lump of amber against the surrounding streets.

Which orchestra plays at the Great Amber concert hall?

It is home to the Liepaja Symphony Amber Sound Orchestra, founded in 1881 as one of the first philharmonic orchestras in the Baltics. The Emils Melngailis Liepaja Music Secondary School is based in the building too.

What is there to do in Liepaja?

Climb the 55-meter (180-foot) tower of Holy Trinity Cathedral, hear its mechanical organ at the September organ festival, tour Karosta Prison, walk the 1.8-kilometer (1.1-mile) Northern Breakwater, or spend an afternoon on the sandy beach beyond Jurmala Park.

Source: Baltic Live Cam