Things to do
7-
Freedom Monument
Raised in 1935 by public subscription, the granite column carries a figure holding three stars for the historic regions of Latvia, and it survived the Soviet decades when gathering at it could mean arrest. An honour guard stands through the day and changes on the hour. It marks the line between the old town and the boulevards.
-
House of the Blackheads
A brotherhood of unmarried merchants met in this stepped-gable hall on the town hall square, its red brick front loaded with statuary and an astronomical clock. Burned in 1941 and levelled by the Soviet authorities, it was rebuilt from photographs and drawings for the city's eight hundredth anniversary. The cellars and assembly rooms are ticketed.
-
Latvian Ethnographic Open-Air Museum
Farmsteads, churches, windmills and fishing huts moved from across Latvia stand in pine forest on the shore of Lake Jugla, arranged by region and staffed in summer by craftworkers. Paths run for kilometres, so half a day is realistic. A bus from the centre takes about half an hour, and winter visits are cold and quiet.
-
Riga Cathedral
Founded in 1211 and enlarged over centuries, the Lutheran cathedral carries Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque work in one building, with a cloister of salvaged stonework alongside. Its organ, built in the 1880s, once ranked among the largest anywhere and still carries a concert programme. The floor sits below street level, the ground having risen around it.
-
Riga Central Market
Five zeppelin hangars hauled from a former German airship base hold one of the larger food markets in Europe, each pavilion given over to a trade: fish, meat, dairy, bread, vegetables. Outdoor rows spread toward the bus station. Trading peaks in the morning and the dairy hall thins by mid-afternoon; smoked fish and grey peas are the local buys.
-
Riga Old Town
Guild halls, warehouses and a ring of nineteenth-century parks along the old moat make up the medieval core, rebuilt in parts after wartime bombing and restored again after independence. Lanes are short and the main squares close together, so a circuit takes a morning. Stag groups concentrate around a few bars after dark, chiefly on Kalku iela.
-
St. Peter's Church
A lift climbs the rebuilt spire to a gallery some seventy metres up, giving the clearest overview of the old town roofs and the river mouth. The church below is Gothic brick, gutted in 1941 and reconstructed in steel and concrete under Soviet rule. Wind closes the platform on rough days, and queues build at midday.