LIBAU (Lettish, Leepaya)  , a seaport of Russia, in the government of Courland, 145 M. by rail S.W. of Riga, at the northern extremity of a narrow sandy peninsula which separates Lake Libau (12 M. long and 2 M. wide) from the Baltic Sea . Its population has more than doubled since 1881 (30,000), being 64,505 in 1897 . The town is well built of stone, with good gardens, and has a naval cathedral (1903) . The harbour was 2 M . S. of the town until a canal was dug through the peninsula in 1697; it is now deepened to 23 ft., and is mostly free from ice throughout the year . Since being brought, in 1872, into railway connexion with Moscow, Orel and Kharkov, Libau has become an important port . New Libau possesses large factories for colours, explosives, machinery belts, sails and ropes, tobacco, furniture, matches, as well as iron works, agricultural machinery works, tin-plate works, soap works, saw-mills, breweries, oil-mills, cork and linoleum factories and flour-mills . The exports reach the annual value of £3,250,000 to £5,500,000, oats being the chief export, with flour, wheat, rye, butter, eggs, spirits, flax, linseed, oilcake, pork, timber, horses and petroleum . The imports average £1,500,000 to £2,000,000 annually . Shipbuilding, including steamers for open-sea navigation, is on the increase . North of the commercial harbour and enclosing it the Russian government made (1893–1906) a very extensive fortified naval port, protected by moles and breakwaters . Libau is visited for sea-bathing in summer .

The port of Libau,

Lyra portus, is mentioned as early as 1263; it then belonged to the Livonian Order or Brothers of the Sword . In 1418 it was burnt by the Lithuanians, and in 1560 it was mortgaged by the grandmaster of the Teutonic Order, to which it had passed, to the Prussian duke Albert . In 1701 it was captured by Charles XII. of Sweden, and was annexed to Russia in 1795 . See Wegner, Geschichte der Stadt Libau (Libau, 1898) .