One of the highlights of a trip to Liepāja is a walk around the abandoned Northern Forts near Karosta. It’s a great place to watch the waves slowly erode the concrete fortifications and pillboxes that were built here and then destroyed by imperial Russia at the beginning of the 20th century as part of a friendship agreement with Germany. One of the unmistakable features of this crumbling monument to ancient empires was a lone pine that was so weathered by the unrelenting winds that whip across the Baltic Sea that it was bent at an improbable angle. Unfortunately, the pine that had become a de facto symbol of the city and that was featured in publicity materials and in countless tourism photographs was chopped down by vandals in late April of 2011. The area is rather remote, so there are no witnesses to the crime and law enforcement aren’t optimistic about their chances of catching the culprits. Local Liepajers mourned the senseless crime and candles were placed on its stump as a memorial to the iconic tree that is no more.