"“Paris of the North”" a Riga Travel Page by annase

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Church in the old town centre

The city now

The 800 year old Riga earned its title as “Paris of the North” during its newly found independence between the World I and II, as it was described as a vibrant, grand and imposing city. It is the capital of Latvia and the largest city in the 3 Baltic States. It is located at the site of an ancient settlement of the Livonians, an ancient Finnic tribe. At the time, it was at the junction of two rivers, the Daugava and the Ridzene. The latter was originally known as the Riga River. However, it no longer exists today. Only River Daugava remains.

The city has a certain central European flavour to it due to the well preserved old town centre. The end of 19th century and the early of 20th century saw construction of many very ornate Eccleticism and Art Nouveau buildings. It has been speculated that this is due to fact that Latvia was occupied by the Soviets after the World War II. In a liberal market economy, old buildings would have probably been knocked down but the Soviets were just too lazy to do this. During the Soviet-era, most churches were also closed or had some another function, for instance, such as a store.

There is an abundant number of old pretty buildings and atmospheric streets. However, the buildings built after the Soviet occupation in 1941 are less interesting, but still there are built several interesting and valuable monuments such as the the Academy of Science and the TV tower. Most Soviet-era buildings are rather ugly and they do not seem to sit in with the rest of the buildings very well.

In order to protect the old buildings, the old centre has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Numerous large scale construction projects have been scheduled, including the high rise buildings on Kipsala island in the left bank of Daugava River and around Skanste Street, which envisage construction of high rises up to 40-50 floors high. UNESCO has threatened to remove the old city centre from its list, if the plans to build skyscrapers in any way interfere with the old town centre. The city is particularly notable for its extensive Art Nouveau architecture. Apparently, similar glorious buildings can only be found in Vienna, St Petersburg and the Riegrovy park in Prague.

If you are really into your Art Nouveau buildings, you can find many outside the old city centre along the Elizabetes, Vilandes and Alberta Iela streets. One the best restaurants Vincents is also located at Elizabetes street. Their starters are about 8-10 Latis and main courses 15-24 Latis. 2 course menu at lunch time costs only about 10 (1 Lati is about 1,40e). On your way back, walk along the town canal and admire the extensive and well maintained parks.

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Centraltirgus

You can also walk along Daugava river to 'Centraltirgus', the central market square, where you can find the pavilions (also known as the Zeppelin-halls). The main purpose for constructing the pavilions was to house zeppelins in them. However, this never happened and they became a place for a market instead. The square is a sight and an experience itself. It houses several small bazaars that sell all kinds of food, clothing etc. Check out what different part of pork they sell there: the nose, brains, tails.. Amazing! The people are almost without exception Russians.

Riga as well as Latvia as a whole has a significant Russian population. This has been the case since the 1940s because during the Soviet era, large numbers of non-Latvians from other Soviet republics moved to into Riga (and Latvia). This changed the demographic composition of the city. Today, the city consists of a mere 40% of native Latvians, whereas Russians amount to almost 44%. In addition to Russians, there are small minorities of Belarusian, Ukrainians and Poles. The treatment of non-Latvian residents has been and still is a major issue here since upon restoration of the independence in 1991, Soviet-era migrants or their children born before this were not automatically granted Latvian citizenship. This is seen to discriminate against the Russian majority population.

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Buildings in the old town centre

Riga's past

The city has more than 700 years of history under the rule of its Baltic Sea neighbours Germany, Sweden and Russia. The Germans and Russian fought fiercely over Latvia during the World War I and II. The Baltic Germans had a dominant position within the city and German was employed as the official language of administration for 700 years. In the late 19th century, Riga became part of the Russian Empire. As a result, Russian language was imposed as the official language.

The city was originally established in the 12th century by German traders, mercenaries and religious crusaders. In the 13th century, the city came under the auspices of the Holy Roman Empire. Around the same time Riga became a member of the Hanseatic League, which gave the city economic and political stability. In the early 17th century, Sweden took over and the city remained under Swedish control for about 100 years, until the time when Russia annexed Latvia.

After the Russian Revolution in 1917, Latvia and the other Baltic States found themselves in a position to claim independence which resulted in institution of a democratic, parliamentary system of government with a President. For the first time, Latvian was recognized as the official language of the country. In 1940, the Soviet Union occupied and annexed Latvia again. The Germans subsequently occupied the country between 1941-1944.

During the war, Latvia lost third of its population: the Baltic Germans were forcibly repatriated to Germany, the Jewish community was forced into a ghetto and later to a concentration camp. Hundreds of thousands of Latvians perished and thousands fled into exile. After the war, Soviets resumed the control and deported many Latvians to Siberia, claiming that they collaborated with the Nazis. They also forced industrialisation and built high-density apartment developments that ring the city's edge and which are linked to the centre by electric railways.

The policy of economic reforms (Perestroika) in the late 1980s led to a situation in which Latvia was able to regain their liberty and freedom. Latvia declared its full independence in 1991 and it was recognised by Russia the same year. All Russian military forces were removed by 1994.