Discover Lan Exeter, the winter capital of Kovir. A wealthy port city built on canals, where trade, politics, and culture intertwine.
Oct 16, 2025
Lan Exeter is Kovir’s winter capital, a wealthy port city built on canals instead of streets, where transport is done entirely by boat. It boasts ornate architecture, a thriving maritime trade, and one of the continent’s top universities. The city combines political, economic, and cultural importance.
A strong wind blew in from the sea, ruffling the sails, and a drizzle like thin hail stung the voyagers' faces painfully. The water in the Great Canal was leaden, rippled by the wind and flecked by a rash of rain.
Winter at Lan Exeter in The Tower of the Swallow by Andrzej Sapkowski
Lan Exeter is the most important city in the kingdom of Poviss and Kovir. It is also the winter capital of Kovir.
The city is situated along the coast of the Gulf of Praxeda and is a major port city that rivals the docks of Novigrad. As such, the port is also defended by the most advanced navy in the Northern Kingdoms.
Lan Exeter in the center, map of Kovir — Ortelius Map 2.0 from Ortelius Team
It is one of the richest cities in the Continent of The Witcher.
The city of Lan Exeter is filled with numerous wealthy and skilled traders, financiers, technicians, and craftspeople.
Artisans have taken advantage of the abundance of precious stones and minerals in the region and earn four times as much as artisans in Redania and Temeria .
Lan Exeter has also political significance. When the combined force of Radovid the Third of Redania and Benda of Kaedwen were defeated by the army of Kovir, Radovid and Benda came to Lan Exeter to sign the First Treaty of Lan Exeter.
The Redanian ambassador also takes residence in Lan Exeter.
Lan Exeter is a very unique city. The distinctive aspect of the metropolis lies in its series of canals who dominate the transport system. There are almost no streets. The city was built on water, meaning on a cluster of small islets and stone quays where the River Tango meets the sea.
Lan Exeter, Kovir’s winter capital, differed fundamentally from the world’s other capital cities. In the harbour of Lan Exeter, travellers arriving by sea disembarked onto the stone quay only to immediately embark onto another craft; a slender many-oared boat with a highly upturned prow and slightly lower stern. Lan Exeter was built on the water, in the wide estuary of the River Targo. The city had canals instead of streets – and all municipal transportation was by boat.
Lan Exeter’s canals bustle with activity and vibrant life. Here, commerce and leisure intertwine, and the city’s architectural elegance is on full display. The city is often compared to real world Venice.
They floated alongside promenades packed with colourful and finely attired crowds. They travelled between avenues of magnificent aristocratic residences and merchants' townhouses, reflecting in the canal's water a spectrum of splendidly embellished, but exceptionally narrow, façades.
The Tower of the Swallow by Andrzej Sapkowski
During the invasion of the North by Nilfgaard, Sigismund Dijkstra, the then secretary of State of Redania, and character in The Witcher 3, went to Lan Exeter in order to ask for a loan.
There, he was carried by barge along Lan Exeter’s Grand Canal directly to the royal palace of Ensenada.
Lan Exeter — Jana Komárková
In Lan Exeter, houses along the canals are built with ornate and very narrow façades, as property taxes are calculated according to how wide the frontage of a house is — the broader the house, the greater the tax. The only building with a wide façade is the Ensenada Palace, the residence of King Thyssen.
Dijkstra couldn’t help but comment on this detail:
Even the merchants’ townhouses had lost their usual sumptuousness–and their narrow frontages seemed narrower than normal. Perhaps they are sodding narrower. If King Esterad has raised the tax, the sly householders may have narrowed their houses.
The city thrives on maritime trade, its harbors are described as a forest of masts and white sails.
Sailors from around the continent flock to its ports, attracted by an extensive pleasure district, numerous taverns, and a variety of prostitutes.
One can also purchase exotic and intoxicating substances such as opium and hashish.
It all benefits the royal treasury of Kovir which collects a substantial portion of its revenue from taxes thanks to its brothels, inns, courtesans, and shops.
In terms of academics, the University of Lan Exeter is one of the best in the continent and outshines, for some, the great University of Oxenfurt.
A well-known cartography atelier is managed by a Lan Exeter University graduate, with a clientele that included the Vegelbud family and the Duchess Anna Henrietta of Toussaint, a character that appeared in the Blood and Wine expansion of The Witcher 3.
The poet Priscilla, or “Callonetta”, also graced the court of Lan Exeter with her presence when she launched her concert tour there.
Every August, aristocrats, trade barons, and mining magnates host lavish parties on brightly decorated barges gliding along the Grand Canal.
This could be compared to the “Marriage of the Sea”, a ceremony that symbolically wedded Venice to the sea where ceremonial barges floated along the doges of Venice.
Bacino di San Marco nel giorno dell' Ascensione by Canaletto
We could easily imagine those ornately decorated barges floating along the Grand Canal of Lan Exeter. Here’s a look at the “bucintoro”, the ceremonial barge of this ceremony:
Figure head on a model of the Bucintoro — Museum of Naval History in Venice
Lan Exeter is the heart of Kovir: a rich, vibrant port city where commerce, culture, and politics converge. Its unique canals, impressive architecture, and academic excellence make it a cornerstone of the kingdom. Exploring the city by boat offers a glimpse into its opulence and strategic significance, reflecting the wealth and influence of Kovir.
And you — can you imagine yourself cruising through Lan Exeter’s canals by boat, discovering its secrets along the way?
Check out our article Kovir: A Closer Look to learn more about the Kovir region!
Wind’s Howling...
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