Ludza Local History Museum is one of the oldest museums in Latgale. Its origins date back to 1918, when, by reason of concentrated effort from local patriots, the antiquities found during archaeological digs in Ludza Hill Fort and Mount Odu were laid out in the first historical display.

Since 1956, the museum has been located in a picturesque site on the coast of the Small Lake of Ludza, in the family seat of Major General Yakov Kulnev, veteran of the War of 1812. Taken together, the museum’s seven exhibition spaces, the Open-Air Department, Ethnography Department and open storage facilities contain five thousand exhibits.

Even more impressive are the museum’s closed storage sites, which hold 40 thousand objects condensed into 17 collections. In 2016, the museum acquired a new structural unit – the Great Synagogue of Ludza.