Riga, Latvia

I’m sitting in the Riga central market (Rīgas Centrāltirgus) … the largest European indoor market, made with some of the steel beams from a decommissioned German zeppelin factory during the interwar period. That’s how huge it is— though they had to cut them down because it was TOO big. 

Of course I love it. Mostly food, including a food court where I am now, then basically groceries, baked goods, amber jewelry, clothes, kitchenware, some booze, etc. Or my fave, the fish pavilion.

There are actually five of these huge pavilions that used to be separated for dairy/bakery, produce, meat, fish, non-food, etc. — and there’s also an outdoor market — but convenience shopping of supermarkets and presumably online shopping has reduced the traffic. Because of its history/importance in Latvia, it’s been turned into a UNESCO protected space. But one of the pavilions and the basements where things were warehoused have sorta been closed down.

Anyway I have taken THREE “free” walking tours (to which I contributed 50 EU — I said I needed to up my contributions) of Riga. All in the cold, wind, and on-off rain. And the first day, with snow in the ground. One of Old Town, one of “alternative Riga” that included the central market, and one of art nouveau in Riga. 

Basically I find Riga’s architecture more interesting than Vilnius. Sadly for Latvians, it’s been taken over by a lot of groups. Riga is right on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Baltic Sea… lots of water and ways to bring stuff in and out of the city. So a valuable property to many empires. The first set of photos are from Old Town

House of the Blackheads (Schwarzkopf) — totally reconstructed as the original was bombed. This was where wealthy bachelor German merchants lived — and apparently “invented” decorating Christmas trees — they drunkenly set a pine tree on fire at NYE and it became a thing!?
Cloister area of Lutheran cathedral, the Dome

Riga has been a trading port since Viking times. But it’s also been overtaken by Germans, the Holy Roman Empire, Swedes, Polish-Lithuania, and Russia (tsar periods) and traded with the Dutch and British. And that’s just up to 1905. More recently they were also under the Soviet and Nazi regimes. And all of this is somehow reflected in the town. 

If I remember correctly, this Lutheran cathedral (it’s called The Dome but I think had a St Mary’s official name?) — has elements of Romanesque, gothic, baroque, and art nouveau architecture. It’s the only church I went into in Riga. More photos below
Funnily this is a pretty elaborate Lutheran church and instead the Catholic one in Kaunas was the plainest I’ve seen. Clearly they don’t always stick to the conventions.
Massive pipe organ. When the Soviets ran Latvia, they repurposed the churches and this one was a concert hall
The Dome’s cloisters store a bunch of old doorways, plaques, armories and other stuff they found and decided to display. Though they have nothing to do with the church.
Roster that used to be the weathervane on the Lutheran cathedral. It started with St. Peter’s and then all the churches were doing it
The three brothers — showing gothic, Dutch, and baroque styles — and thanks to Rick Steves I knew to walk in to check out the inside and the courtyard of the middle one
Interestingly the exhibit on this day was on American mobile homes. Contrasting the lack of permanence with the bldg it’s in, which is from the 17th century seemed pretty ironic
Courtyard with nice view of some steeple — though now that I look at it I don’t know which steeple it is!? There were a lot of churches in Riga and five had that rooster on top
The courtyard erected various found items — that’s one way to keep them!?

Lots was destroyed in the wars and rebuilt as reproductions but I guess it’s nice to see the old architecture even if it’s relatively new?! Unlike Lithuania, although both were late to convert to Christianity (both tour guides said they’re the last — and the guide books seem to bear out Lithuania as the last but I guess it was close?) — the majority of Lithuanians still identify as Catholics whereas the wide majority of converted Latvian Protestants have declared themselves non religious. The guides said it was because the soviets strongly discouraged shows of religion … but that was also the case in Lithuania. That said, Riga and Latvia also have a much higher Russian population — 27% in Latvia and I think 4% in Lithuania — so they cannot as blatantly hate the Russians, which they palpably seemed to in Vilnius. Side comment but one of my guides said the 27% number but I didn’t remember if it was Riga or Latvia overall. Googling did not help. I found sites saying the percentage of Russians in Riga ranged from 16% (but that was Quora and I don’t trust random dudes) to almost 50%!? They did say it’s higher in cities so I’m guessing about 1/3 in Riga and over 25% across the country. There’s one Latvian city close to the border of both Lithuania and Belarus which is over 50% ethnically Russian.

Riga’s Nativity of Christ Orthodox Church — during Soviet years, they made it into a planetarium

In Stalin’s days, Riga was expected to produce Russian-approved designs. On the alternative tour, we saw this … apparently a similar design is all over Soviet-ruled areas as a monument to Stalin but oddly resembling the Empire State Bldg. Other Soviet era bldgs are the more typical gray concrete block — my gf Joy likes to take a long bus/tram ride from city centers to its end as a way to see the suburbs and where regular people live. I tried this and got to Imanta — one of my tour guides was impressed as this is apparently a suggestion he gives to tourists although I didn’t take the line he would’ve recommended.

Stalin requested this bldg in the “empire” style — basically a rip off of Empire State bldg
Riga freedom monument — affectionately called Milda. The Soviets surprisingly did not tear it down as it was a monument to freedom not I guess to Latvia or patriotism?
Jewish quarter — remains of synagogue with memorials
On the other side of the river from Old Town
National library of Latvia. Way more impressive from the front but I was on a tram and didn’t get a photo

Now for the Art Nouveau tour. Riga has the largest number of art nouveau bldgs in the world — like 800! — and I wanted to see a bunch of bldgs. I also did a museum… but I’m tired out and realized I never posted anything about Latvia. So I’m going to throw in the photos and blog more later…

Mikhail Eisenstein (Sergei’s dad— my guide was super impressed I knew this and who Sergei is!? Those film classes did something I guess) designed a bunch of the better known art nouveau bldgs

Hm I see I took more of the decorative nouveau style … he showed us several sorta dark heavy bldgs still identified as art nouveau but I didn’t like them as much!?

Beautiful stairwell from a nouveau bldg that is now a museum. Interiors are always interesting

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