Rīga isn't a 'wallop you over the head with grand sights' kind of city. It's charms are much more subtle than that, coalescing around its laid-back riverside vibe, a compact historic heart and ramshackle suburbs of wooden houses. Most impressively, Rīga has the largest array of art nouveau architecture in Europe. Nightmarish gargoyles and praying goddesses adorn more than 750 buildings along the stately boulevards radiating out from the city's core.
Despite the carnage of wartime bombing, the slaughter of its large Jewish community and the subsequent decades locked behind the Iron Curtain, Rīga has entered the 21th century with a thriving cultural life and a heady cosmopolitan buzz to it.
Rīga CathedralCATHEDRAL
Founded in 1211 as the seat of the Rīga diocese, this enormous (once Catholic, now Evangelical Lutheran) cathedral is the largest medieval church in the Baltic. The architecture is an amalgam of styles from the 13th to the 18th centuries: the eastern end, the oldest portion, has Romanesque features; the tower is 18th-century baroque; and much of the rest dates from a 15th-century Gothic rebuilding.
Rīga History & Navigation MuseumMUSEUM
Founded in 1773, this is the oldest museum in the Baltic, situated in the old cathedral monastery. The permanent collection features artefacts from the Bronze Age all the way to WWII, ranging from lovely pre-Christian jewellery to preserved hands removed from medieval forgers. A highlight is the beautiful neoclassical Column Hall, built when Latvia was part of the Russian Empire and filled with relics from that time.
Art Museum Rīga BourseMUSEUM
Rīga’s lavishly restored stock exchange building is a worthy showcase for the city's art treasures. The elaborate facade features a coterie of deities that dance between the windows, while inside, gilt chandeliers sparkle from ornately moulded ceilings. The Oriental section features beautiful Chinese and Japanese ceramics and an Egyptian mummy, but the main halls are devoted to Western art, including a Monet painting and a scaled-down cast of Rodin's The Kiss.
Cat HouseHISTORIC BUILDING
The spooked black cats mounted on the turrets of this 1909 art nouveau–influenced building have become a symbol of Rīga. According to local legend, the building's owner was rejected from the Great Guild across the street and exacted revenge by pointing the cats' butts towards the hall. The members of the guild were outraged, and after a lengthy court battle the merchant was admitted into the club on the condition that the cats be turned in the opposite direction.
Museum of Decorative Arts & DesignMUSEUM
The former St George’s Church houses a museum devoted to applied art from the art nouveau period to the present, including an impressive collection of furniture, woodcuts, tapestries and ceramics. The building’s foundations date back to 1207 when the Livonian Brothers of the Sword erected their castle here.
St Peter's ChurchCHURCH
Forming the centrepiece of Rīga’s skyline, this Gothic church is thought to be around 800 years old, making it one of the oldest medieval buildings in the Baltic. Its soaring red-brick interior is relatively unadorned, except for heraldic shields mounted on the columns. A colourful contrast is provided by the art exhibitions staged in the side aisles. At the rear of the church, a lift whisks visitors to a viewing platform 72m up the steeple.
Blackheads HouseHISTORIC BUILDING
At the time of writing, this fantastically ornate structure was serving as the temporary home of Estonia's president. Built in 1344 as a veritable fraternity house for the Blackheads guild of unmarried German merchants, the original house was decimated in 1941 and flattened by the Soviets seven years later. Somehow the original blueprints survived and an exact replica was completed in 2001 for Rīga’s 800th birthday.
Museum of the Occupation of LatviaMUSEUM
Inhabiting an interesting example of Soviet-era architecture on the main square, this museum carefully details Latvia’s Soviet and Nazi occupations between 1940 and 1991. Some of the exhibits are extremely disturbing, including first-hand accounts of the murder of Rīga's once-substantial Jewish population, a recreation of a gulag cell and many gruesome photographs. Allow a couple of hours to take it all in.
Freedom MonumentMONUMENT
Affectionately known as ‘Milda’, Rīga’s Freedom Monument towers above the city between Old and Central Rīga. Paid for by public donations, the monument was designed by Kārlis Zāle and erected in 1935 where a statue of Russian ruler Peter the Great once stood.
Nativity of Christ CathedralCATHEDRAL
With gilded cupolas peeking through the trees, this sweet little Orthodox cathedral (1883) adds a dazzling dash of Russian bling to the skyline. During the Soviet period the church was converted into a planetarium but it's since been restored to its former use.
Rīga Art Nouveau MuseumMUSEUM
If you’re curious about what lurks behind Rīga’s imaginative art nouveau facades, then it’s definitely worth stopping by here. Once the home of Konstantīns Pēkšēns (a local architect responsible for over 250 of the city’s buildings), the interiors have been completely restored to resemble a middle-class apartment from the 1920s. Enter from Strēlnieku iela; push No 12 on the doorbell.
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