Ikšķile is a town

Town

A town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size a settlement must be in order to be called a "town" varies considerably in different parts of the world, so that, for example, many American "small towns" seem to British people to be no more than villages, while...

 in Latvia

Latvia

Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...

, the administrative centre of Ikšķile municipality

Ikšķile municipality

Ikšķile municipality is a municipality in Vidzeme, Latvia. The municipality was formed in 2004 by reorganization of Ikšķile town with its countryside territory the administrative centre being Ikšķile.- References :...

. It was the first capital of the catholic bishopric of Livonia

Livonia

Livonia is a historic region along the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea. It was once the land of the Finnic Livonians inhabiting the principal ancient Livonian County Metsepole with its center at Turaida...

, known by the German name of Üxküll

Uexküll

Uexküll is a Baltic-German noble family.It's suggested that the name Uexküll originates from Ikšķile , town in Livonia.Notable members include:*Johann von Uexküll , Danish Governor of Ösel...

. Saint Meinhard

Saint Meinhard

Saint Meinhard was a German canon regular and the first Bishop of Livonia. His life was described in the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia. His body rests in the now-Lutheran Riga Cathedral....

, known from the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia

Chronicle of Henry of Livonia

The Livonian Chronicle of Henry is a document describing historic events in Livonia and surrounding areas from 1180 to 1227. Apart from the few references in the Primary Chronicle compiled in Kievan Rus' in the twelfth century, it is the oldest known written document about the history of these...

, was the first bishop of Üxküll. In 1197 Berthold of Hanover

Berthold of Hanover

Berthold of Hanover was a German Cistercian and Bishop of Livonia, who met his death in a crusade against the pagan Livonians.-Life:...

, a Cistercian abbot of Loccum, was made the second bishop of Üxküll. Those days the town was the center of the upcoming crusading activities in the Livonian area. Bishop Berthold moved the episcopal see to Riga, but was killed by the Livs

Livonian people

The Livonians or Livs are the indigenous inhabitants of Livonia, a large part of what is today northwestern Latvia and southwestern Estonia. They spoke the Uralic Livonian language, a language which is closely related to Estonian and Finnish...

 in battle.
Ikšķile is one of the oldest Latvian populated counties, which can be seen by an ancient burial ground in today's rural areas of Ikšķile. The coast by the Daugava river has held a Livonian village on this site as far back as the 9th - 12th century.

The word Ikšķile (or the German Uexküll) comes from the meaning of (Finno-Ugrian) Livonian word ükskül (üksküla in Estonian

Estonian language

Estonian is the official language of Estonia, spoken by about 1.1 million people in Estonia and tens of thousands in various émigré communities...

). Ükskül (üks = one, kül = village) means simply just "village number one", or "the first [German] village".