Staburags Parishcovers 58.5 km2, of which 2.0 km2 is open water, on the forested left bank of the Daugava where the river widens into the Pļaviņas Reservoir. Shallow drift soils overlie gently undulating Ordovician
dolomite;
arable strips and
orchards concentrate around the administrative village of Staburags, while scattered farmsteads line the Vīgante and Siliņi streams and a parish road links the A6 Riga–Daugavpils highway to lakeside camping areas in Vīgante Park. The Central Statistical Bureau counted 327 residents on 1 January 2024, for a
population density of just 5.6 inhabitants per square kilometre, making the parish one of the most thinly settled parts of Selonia. Created as a rural district in 1945, Staburags Parish was suppressed in the 1949
Soviet local-government reform, re-established in 1990 and incorporated into
Jaunjelgava Municipality in 2009; Latvia's nationwide territorial reform of 1 July 2021 transferred it to the enlarged
Aizkraukle Municipality, where it remains. The parish takes its name from the
travertine cliff Staburags (also called
Staburadze), an 18-metre spring-built
crag that dominated the Daugava valley until 1965, when it was submerged beneath 6.5 m of water during construction of the
Pļaviņas hydroelectric dam. Latvian folk tradition personifies the travertine cliff as Staburadze—a grieving maiden whose tears were turned to stone—while its loss beneath the Pļaviņas reservoir in 1965 helped spark Latvia’s first modern environmental protest and later served as a rallying symbol for the independence-era green movement. A memorial ensemble on the former Vīgante Manor estate now interprets the vanished landmark. Riverside paths lead to a log
amphitheatre used for midsummer concerts and to a lookout marking the cliff's exact position, while panels explain the geological and cultural story. In 2013 woodcarvers added figures of Jancis and Mārčs—the
protagonists of Valdis's 1930 children's novel
Staburaga bērni—and a lakeside
pavilion honours composer
Pēteris Barisons, whose choral works premiered here in the 1930s. ==Towns, villages and settlements of Staburags Parish==