The Baltics: Latvia

Ever since one of my brothers married a lovely lady whose parents had fled Latvia during World War II as the Soviets were returning, I had wanted to visit Latvia. The tour I took in 2012 to the Baltics allowed me to do just that.

My sister-in-law’s family was part of a Latvian community here in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis & St Paul, so we had the pleasure of meeting and becoming familiar and friendly with several other people of Latvian heritage. Along with that, we had been able to take part in some wonderful meals with some traditional Latvian foods. So I was not a complete novice on this trip when it came to Latvian cuisine and was looking forward to having some great culinary experiences.

Not too long after crossing the border from Lithuania to Latvia, we came upon Rundale Palace, where we had lunch and a tour. It was a large, beautiful place and had been designed by the same architect who designed the Winter Palace in St Petersburg. It was begun in 1736 for the Duke of Courland.

In the 1790s, the area was absorbed into the Russian Empire and Catherine the Great gave the palace to the younger brother of one of her favorite lovers. When he died, his widow remarried and the palace passed to her new husband’s family.

Rundale Palace suffered quite a bit of damage during the 1919 Latvian War of Independence and then became a school for several years. In the 1960s, a local historical society acquired the palace and started restoring it in 1972. They did a great job. It is an absolute treasure house. They let visitors take photos inside, so I took a ton of them. Just a tiny sampling is shown here.

On to Riga, where we spent the night at a Radisson Blu. Across the street from the hotel was Pareizticigo Katedrale, a Russian Orthodox cathedral. We were on our own for dinner that night. So some of us walked over to the cathedral, which is Nativity of Christ Cathedral in English. It was built in the late 19^th century. During the Soviet Occupation after World War II, it was converted into a planetarium. Since the Soviet Dissolution in 1991, it has been restored to its past glory.

We walked around the area to explore the neighborhood. There was a victory monument – the Freedom Monument, built to commemorate the 1919 Latvian War of Independence – a short distance from the cathedral. There was also a large park by the monument. We found that we were actually walking distance to both the Old Town and the diplomatic district where most of the embassies were located and nearly all of the buildings were in the Art Nouveau style.

Since we had eaten a fairly large meal for lunch, we decided to pick up some lighter fare for dinner. We had a lot to see and do the next day, so we were all of a mind to eat lightly and turn in early.

Riga was founded by the Teutonic Knights in 1201. During its history, it has been part of the Holy Roman Empire, the Lithuanian-Polish Commonwealth, and both the Swedish and Russian Empires. During the Middle Ages, it was also part of the Hanseatic League. This was a group of merchant cities on the Baltic which were very prosperous.

After the 1919 Latvian War of Independence, Latvia managed to remain on its own until World War II, when it was taken over by the Soviets and tens of thousands of its citizens (mostly male) were either executed or deported to Siberia. Then the Nazis took over and conscripted most of the remaining men into their army. As the Soviets were returning in 1944, many of the Latvians who were part of the Twin Cities group with whom my family interacted fled. I can’t imagine what it would be like to have to flee from my home.

The next morning after breakfast, we set out to take a look at all of the gorgeous Art Nouveau buildings and embassies. The French and Russian embassies were closest to the hotel. Riga has the largest collection of Art Nouveau buildings in the world.

We watched the Changing of the Guards at the Freedom Monument and walked through the park to the Old Town, passing the National Opera House on the way. Suddenly we left a combination of the 21^st, 20^th and 19^th centuries and found ourselves in a mostly medieval era.

The first part of the Old Town that we encountered was a tower and barracks used by the military back in the Middle Ages. The Powder Tower is now used as a military museum. The barracks have been converted into homes. The Swede Gate, which is one of the original gates, was built into the city wall in the 1600s to provide better access to the barracks.

Within the city walls was the Latvian Parliament and a nearby church with a memorial to the barricades that existed in 1991 when Latvia was trying to separate from the Soviet Union. The church, named St James’ Cathedral, was built in the 13^th century.

Outside of the trio of 17^th century houses called the Three Brothers, a couple of men were playing a tuba and a French horn. One of the houses was originally built in 1490, but was refurbished in the 17^th century when the other two houses were built. The middle house, which is the fanciest of the three, has the date 1646 on it. The legend is that they were built for three brothers and have always been called the Three Brothers throughout the centuries.

Riga Castle is the third structure to have that name and was built over the remains of an earlier castle back in the 17^th century. It is currently the residence of the President of Latvia. Here and there around the Old Town are bits and pieces of earlier castles.

The Doma Baznica (Basilica Dome) is the oldest church in Latvia and also in the Baltics. It was built beginning in 1211. Several roosters are mounted on the spires of the cathedral and are considered to be symbols of Latvia. The main tower of the cathedral was in scaffolding to clean it when we were there.

The cathedral was next to a large square with some beautiful houses on it. A short distance away were several guild houses. Within a convent courtyard, was a white building that had been part of the original Riga Castle.

We came across St Peter’s Basilica with the tallest tower in Riga. Originally built in 1209 as a small church, St Peter’s was completely renovated in the 15^th century.

The Town Square was very medieval with statues of knights and of St George slaying the dragon. The jewel of the square was the Melngalvju Nama or House of the Blackheads. Although the date on the building is 1334, the building was totally destroyed during World War II and had to be completely reconstructed.

The Blackheads were a society of banquet caterers to the upper classes. They chose as their patron saint St Maurice, who was traditionally depicted as a black soldier in knight’s armor.

After some of us went for a late lunch at a self-service called Lido about two blocks from the hotel, we took the tour coach out to the Latvian Ethnographic Open-Air Museum. They had a roadside inn, a peasant homestead, a windmill, a church, and several other homesteads from various parts of Latvia dating to the 18^th and 19^th centuries.

I love visiting these types of museums since they preserve a way of life that pretty much no longer exists in these countries. When the Soviets took over, they mostly moved everyone out of their small farms in the country into apartment blocks in cities and towns and put them to work in factories. I especially loved seeing the interior of a very small, plain church. The interior was beautifully painted and had some wonderful carved pieces – altar, pulpit, pews.

That night we had dinner at a restaurant called La Boheme, which was a short walk from the hotel. The dinner was delicious and we were serenaded by Latvian folk music. It was pouring rain on the way over to the restaurant, but it was done when we needed to return to the hotel.

On our way to Estonia the next day, we had a morning break in Sigulda. There were two castles close to one another there. One had been built in the 13^th century and the other in the 19^th century. The older castle was in the process of being restored after sitting in a ruined state for a few centuries. We could only see a little of it as most of it was a construction zone. The newer castle wasn’t open to the public, so we walked around in the gardens outside.

Next time — Estonia with its authentically medieval Old Town in Tallinn, which wasn’t destroyed by bombs during World War II.