Best Tourist Attractions in Rīga

Alberta Iela

Iela huge painting that you could spend hours staring at, as if your own attention detects more and more fascinating facts, this must-see Rīga sight is actually a somewhat practical road with residential homes, restaurants and shops. Art nouveau, otherwise called Jugendstil, is the style, and the architect in charge of many of the buildings is Mikhail Eisenstein (dad of filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein).

A person, his personality comes through in his work. Watch the full range of his talents on display in five adjoining buildings he designed from No 2a.

In particular, note Alberta iela 2a, assembled in 1906: serene faces with chevalier helmets stand guard atop the facade, which apparently extends much beyond the actual roofing of the arrangement. Goblins and masks adorn the lower sections amid contours and clean lines. Most noticeable are both gems satyr phoenix-women that stand guard at the front.

Rīga Central Market

Spilling and haggle for your huckleberries at this vast market, housed at a series of WWI Zeppelin hangars outdoors. It’s an important Rīga encounter, supplying bountiful opportunities for people-watching and also to inventory up for a picnic supper. Visitor’s foraging instincts are here activated by the colourful abundance Even though range of dealers is decreasing. The best way to delight in the current sector will be to do your very best to get lost amidst the bounty and navigate away the day.

Rīga Cathedral

Launched in 1211 since the seat of this Rīga diocese, this huge (formerly Catholic, currently Evangelical Lutheran) cathedral is the largest medieval church in the Baltic. The structure is also the amalgam of styles from the 13th to the 18th centuries: the end, the portion that is earliest, has features that are Romanesque; that the tower remains 18th century baroque; and much of the remaining dates from a 15thcentury Gothic re build. The black bricks are a symbol of this Hanseatic architecture.

St Peter’s Church

Forming the centrepiece of all Rīga’s skyline, this church is believed to be approximately 800 years old, making it among the oldest medieval buildings in the Baltic. Its towering interior is relatively unadorned, aside from heraldic shields mounted on the columns. There is A colourful contrast offered by the art exhibitions staged in the side aisles. At the back of the church, traffic are whisked by a lift to a screening stage 72m up the copper-clad steeple.

Corner House

Generations of Latvians remember A real life house of horrors, this imposing fin de siècle construction because the local headquarters of the Soviet secret police — NKVD/KGB. Arbitrary arrests, torture it happened here. It’s currently an exhibition devoted to perpetrators and victims of governmental repression. A sign outside reads’KGB executed, tortured, imprisoned and humiliated its victims’. Englishlanguage tours usually are in the evenings, but confirm in advance.

Žanis Lipke Memorial

There is hardly a place in Latvia that could tell this kind of story that is optimistic as this stunning memorial. Žanis Lipke stored over 50 Jews from certain death during the Nazi job he found a job with all the German aviation, which enabled him to isolate individuals out of the Rīga ghetto under the pretext of utilizing them as labourers. He chased them in a bunker below the woodpile beside his house — now this memorial’s site.

Rīga Ghetto & Latvian Holocaust Museum

The centrepiece of this arresting and ambitious museum is really a wooden home with a reconstructed flat, like people who Jews had to move right into if the Nazis created a ghetto within this area of Rīga in 1941. The central courtyard has a railway wagon like the type that attracted Jews out of Germany to Rīga to be murdered. Nearby, there is just a photographic exhibition detailing the Holocaust in Latvia along with the faces of those killed.

Biķernieki Memorial

Between 1941 and 1944, more than 35,000 Jews were — shooter at by the Nazis — helped by Latvians at 55 websites within this particular forest. It’s one of many killing sites that ring Rīga. Back in 2001, a big and impressive memorial was opened deep within the woods, about 200m south of the busy road. Stones list the titles of places from Europe where Jews were brought from to be killed here. Paths through the trees that are silent contribute into other sites that are murdering.

Museum of the Barricades of 1991

The freedom of latvia came after enormous conflicts. Among the very remarkable stories entails the barricades assembled by thousands of citizens across important public buildings in Rīga. In January 1991, Latvians from every walk of life came together to stop the Soviets from overpowering the capital, a display of heart felt commitment into a larger cause. This fantastic museum is run by the business of veterans that are barricade. It’s really a moving — and professionally curated — account of this moment.

Kalnciema Kvartāls

A lovingly restored courtyard with vintage buildings hosts cafes, restaurants and stores. Additionally it is home to a fantastic market that attracts a number of the food and also produce vendors from across the area. Read smoked veggies, cheeses, meats, pastries and spirits. The goods are equally all exceptional. Sometimes there are street food festivals and concerts, performances, art exhibitions. The airport bus (2-2 ) moves right outside.

Art Museum Rīga Bourse

Rīga’s lavishly restored 1852 stock market building is really a worthy showcase to its city’s art treasures. While gilt chandeliers sparkle from ornately moulded ceilings, the elaborate facade comes with a coterie of all deities that dance between the windows. The Asian division comprises amazing Chinese and Japanese art and an Egyptian mummy, as the principal halls are all devoted to Western art, for example a Monet painting and a mythical throw of Rodin’s The Mirror .

Pilsētas Kanāls (City Canal)

Pilsētas kanāls, the town’s older moat, once shielded the medieval walls . Nowadays the snaking ravine was incorporated into a thin belt of magnificent parkland splitting Old and Central Rīga. Stately Raiņa bulvāris follows the rivulet in the north side, and was called’Embassy Row’ during Latvia’s liberty between the world wars.

Blackheads House

Built in 1344 as a veritable fraternity house for its black heads guild of merchants, the house has been bombed in 1941 and totaled from the Soviets seven decades after. The first blueprints survived and also a precise replica of this attractively ornate construction was finished in 2001 for Rīga’s 800th birthday.

Rīga History & Navigation Museum

Founded in 1773 and situated in the old Rīga Cathedral monastery, this participating museum introduces the sweep of history, in the Bronze Age the way to WWII. Artefacts, including stunning furnishings and exquisite pre-Christian jewellery and clothing from the art nouveau time, help to tell the story. A highlight is the neo classical Column Hall, assembled when Latvia was part of the Russian empire. Kids of all ages love the rooms high in ship models.

Cat House

The spooked black cats mounted onto the turrets of the 1909 art nouveau–affected construction have become symbols of Rīga along with Instagram celebrities. On any other tour, you notice a story about the owner of a building needed the cats’ butts targeted at the neighbouring Great Guild throughout the street after he had been rejected for membership. The story is totally false but because of guides it has nine lives.

Arsenāls Exhibition Hall

Underneath a row of granite heads constituting Latvia’s most prominent musicians, the royal arsenal, assembled to save firearms to the army of the tsar, is a prime spot for Latvian and international art displays.

Freedom Monument

Affectionately called’Milda’,” Rīga’s Freedom Monument towers above the city involving Old and Central Rīga. Paid for by public contributions, the monument was created by Kārlis Zāle and built in 1935 by which a statue of Russian ruler Peter the Great once stood.

St John’s Church

A 13th- to 19th century amalgam of Gothic and baroque styles, the church has been first mentioned when the taxpayers installed on its roofing and successfully dispersed attacking Livonian knights. Run by monks, it was pillaged during the reformation. After a stint as stables and granary, it was passed over to the Lutherans, who remain in control. Next to the church, an archway leads into Jāņa sēta (St John’s courtyard), which contains the preserved remains of a 13th-century monastery wall.

Rīga Art Nouveau Museum

If you’re interested about what lurks behind Rīga’s ingenious art nouveau facades, stop from here to find out the revived flat of Konstantīns Pēkšēns (a local architect responsible for over 250 of the town’s art nouveau buildings). A middle class apartment is depicted by the insides directly down to the darkened and miniature maid’s room. At the cellar there are multimedia exhibits concerning art nouveau. Enter from Strēlnieku iela; drive No 12 about the doorbell.

Museum of the Occupation of Latvia

This tradition details Latvia’s Soviet and Nazi jobs between 1991 and 1940. A number of these exhibits are disturbing, for example first-hand reports of the murder of Rīga’s once-substantial Jewish people, a re-creation of a gulag cell and several pictures which detail the atrocities. Latvia’s active immunity of the 1950s, the passive resistance of the 1970 s and the resistance of the 1990s are fully detailed. There are daily tours in English at 2pm and 4pm ($3).

Latvian Academy of Science Observation Deck

This Stalinesque tower has been an not-so-welcome Soviet-era present from Moscow, that includes seven towers just like it. Structure of what is dubbed’Stalin’s birthday cake’ commenced in 1951 but wasn’t completed. Overall it has 2 1 storeys and is 107m tall. However, the best attribute is really on flooring 15, where you are able to enjoy sweeping views of all of Rīga out of a vantage point 65m up on the viewing terrace.

Back on the floor, those with an eagle eye may identify sickles and hammers hidden in the convoluted facade. There’s an exceptional little book shop on the groundfloor with many titles that are academic that are interesting.

Three Brothers

Tallinn includes its own Three Sisters, so Rīga has dubbed three of its older stone houses the Three Brothers. These architectural gems conveniently line up in a photogenic row and then exemplify Old Rīga’s diverse collection of architectural designs. No more 17 is more than 600 years of age, which makes it the earliest dwelling in town. Notice the miniature windows on the top levels — Rīga’s property taxes during the Middle Ages were based on window size.

Laima Chocolate Museum

As the candy cherry smell permeates the place, your sweet teeth may come to life cubes away from the early Laima chocolate factory. Founded in 1921 from Vilhelms Kuze, the state turned into chocolate addicts. The small museum is geared to kids, who learn the process of chocolate-making and then blackmail their parents in the chocolate shop.

Museum of Decorative Arts & Design

The St George’s Church houses a museum specialized in art into the present, including an astonishing selection of woodcuts, furniture, tapestries and art. The building’s foundations date back to 1207, if was built by the Livonian Brothers of the Sword . Considering that the remainder of this first knights’ castle has been levelled by rioting citizens in the end of the same century, it is the only building that remains undamaged in the birth of Rīga.

Rīga Synagogue

This art nouveau–style synagogue was the only one to survive the Nazi occupation — to torch it at the Old Town that was packed would have placed neighbouring buildings at risk. NeoNazis from the 1990s reopened for worship throughout the period however damaged by bomb strikes it. It is now protected by police 24/7 and had been restored in 2009. Indoors, there is ornamentation modelled in ancient Egyptian and Egyptian Assyrian-Babylonian styles.

Latvian War Museum

The round Powder Tower goes to the 14 th century and is the sole survivor of the 18 original towers which punctuated the older city walls. Nine cannon balls from 17th- and 18th-century assaults are inserted in its own walls. Previously the museum has served as a prison a gunpowder store, a torture chamber and a frat house. The museum details Latvia’s military and political background from medieval times to the current day and NATO.

Victory Monument

This sprawling green space (currently mostly employed as a football field) is home to the Victory Monument, which was built by the Soviets to commemorate the heroism in their own soldiers in WWII. This is just a divisive symbol, together with members of their network collecting here in the thousands of thousands every 9 May to celebrate what they see as the victory over fascism. However, it’s the sign of occupation. Tram 10 stops .

Rīga Motor Museum

The stars of the collection at this engrossing and surprisingly well-funded tradition are cars which once belonged to Soviet luminaries like Gorky, Stalin, Khrushchev and Brezhnev, filled with irreverent figures of the men. Stalin’s armoured limo drank a litre of petrol every 2.5km. Also rewarding is that your hallway in the lives of Soviet citizens along with their cars. Takes buses 1-5 and 5.

Rīga Castle

Built whilst the headquarters of the master of the Livonian Order in 1330, this building has been substantially mutated over the last few years now just looks correctly from certain angles. It had been badly damaged in a 2013 flame, but after a gigantic renovation it is the president’s official residence. Peer beyond the ceremonial guards out to get a peek at the inner sanctum.

Swedish Gate

Constructed into the city’s medieval walls at 1698 while the Swedes were in power, this arched gate is the only one left in Old Rīga. Set in the largest surviving section of the town walls, it results in Trokšnu iela, Old Rīga’s narrowest and most atmospheric street.

Last Updated on December 14, 2019 by Guide 4 Travelers