Balvi is a nice, green, small town in the Northeastern part of Latvia. It is located between two lakes on both banks of the Bolupite river. It is possible that after Balvi Lake the name was given to the town on the Bolupe river. The hypothesis exists about the town’s name, meaning “gift” in Latvian, which is related to the gifting act during the Poland authority. In other sources it is mentioned that the name Balvi has associations with the word Baal- the God of fertility, clouds, rain and thunder.

In ancient times it was marshy and wooded locality here and it was in the Latgalian inhabited Atdzele land. Balvi was first mentioned in 1224. In the second half of the 18^th century Polish estate owner hand lady K.Hilzen built a small estate house and a wooden church on the bank of the lake. In 1783 Balvi was called village. On the verge of the 19^th and 20^th centuries Balvi grew into the centre of a large estate and the rural region centre. It was the largest habitable place. In 1926 Balvi obtained the right of a hamlet and in 1928 the rights of a town.

Balvi was dragged in the vortex of the Second World War in 1941. The town was almost fully burned down by the fascist troops, which were going back westward. Balvi, as we know it now, has been built anew and it became the centre of the region in 1950.