Daugavpils Shot Factory

The Daugavpils Skrošu Rūpnīca (Daugavpils Shot Factory) includes a working shot tower that may be the oldest still operating in Europe. The factory was opened in the early 1880s by M Resler from Minsk. Originally it had a wooden shot tower which was replaced by a brick tower after a fire in 1911. Lead sheeting was produced as well as lead shot. The factory was closed during the First World War as the Russian Empire moved production eastward, but was re-opened by the Resler family in 1924. It was subject to partial state control from 1938, and to full state control from the time of Latvia’s absorption into the USSR in 1938. It was damaged by bombing in 1944 but was rebuilt on a large scale after the end of the Second World War. By 1953 it was supplying shot to all parts of the USSR and was producing 2,000 tons per year in the early 1960s. It was privatised in 2003, and the new owners opened the factory museum and historic production workshop in 2012. Visitors can see the whole process of producing shot by pouring liquid lead through a sieve and allowing it to fall in the form of perfect spheres into tanks of water. It is then incorporated into cartridges.

Daugavpils Shot Factory
Daugavpils Skrošu Rūpnīca
Varšavas ielā 28
5404 Daugavpils
Latvia
+371 (0) 277 - 66655
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