Salaspils (pronunciationⓘ; German: Kircholm; Swedish: Kirkholm) (literally: "island castle") is a town in the Vidzeme region of Latvia.

Archaeological excavations of 1964–1975 (during the construction of Riga HES) in ancient settlements, burial grounds and castle mounds give evidence of very dense population of the region.

At the end of the 12th century, German merchants travelled up the Daugava, establishing missionaries among the Livonian settlements.

One important centre of Daugava Livonians, the small island Mārtiņsala (German:Kircholm) had a Christian church as early as 1186.

In the second part of the 19th century, military summer camps were organized in the territory of Salaspils and an Orthodox church was built into a garrison.

In 1941, during World War II, German Nazi authorities established the largest civilian concentration camp in the Baltic states 2 km northwest of the town of Salaspils.

At the site of the camp, a major monument complex in remembrance of the Soviet victims of Nazism was opened on 31 October 1967.

[6] Claims made by Soviet historians that over 100,000 people were killed in Salaspils during the German occupation are nowadays classified as propaganda.

According to Latvian historian Aivars Stranga, the controversial 2006 Russian book Latvia Under The Yoke of Nazism revives Soviet-era myths which Holocaust researchers have long since deconstructed.

[7][8] [9] During the late 1950s and early 1960s, various industrial enterprises and governmental institutions developed in Salaspils, such as the nuclear plant and four branches of the Academy of Science.