Riga: Art Nouveau, Old Town and the Daugava

If you would like to combine historic architecture with a city by the water on your trip, your first stop should be Riga’s historic centre. Its layout combines a medieval core with a semicircular boulevard ring dating from the 19th century. A green belt runs along both sides of the city canal; the former suburban districts feature a rectangular street grid and wooden architecture from the 18th and 19th centuries. This means that different architectural structures and periods can be encountered within a single historic urban area.

Art Nouveau as a defining urban landscape

In the medieval part of the historic centre, there are around 50 particularly valuable Art Nouveau buildings, and more than 300 in the rest of the historic centre. Those who would like to explore this focus in greater depth can visit the Riga Art Nouveau Centre, the only museum in the Baltics dedicated to the Art Nouveau heritage. Alberta iela offers a second perspective: it is regarded as the centre of Riga’s Art Nouveau movement and is lined along its entire length with magnificent historic Art Nouveau buildings. The museum and the street therefore represent two different approaches to the same defining architectural tradition: focused interpretation and the historic streetscape.

Market, monument and sacred architecture

Riga Central Market also combines striking architecture with a direct insight into urban life. Its five food pavilions are dedicated to vegetables, dairy products, meat, fish and gastronomy. The distinctive pavilions were originally built in the 1920s as military airship hangars. Their original function as military airship hangars and their integration into the Central Market thus represent two different phases of use for the same distinctive structures. The Freedom Monument represents Latvian statehood, national unity, independence and freedom. It was unveiled on 18 November 1935. Riga Cathedral is the largest and one of the oldest medieval sacred buildings in Latvia and the Baltics. The two sites place different emphases: the monument points to political values and a specific date, while the cathedral reflects medieval religious and architectural history. A tour of Riga thus leads from national symbolism to medieval architectural history without reducing the individual themes to the same sight.

Riga from above and from the water

The tower of St Peter’s Church offers panoramic views of the Old Town’s red roofs, modern Riga, the Gulf of Riga and the Daugava with its extensive harbour. For a perspective along the waterways, there is the “Old Riga Panorama Trip”: the journey lasts one hour and travels along Riga’s city canal and the Daugava. The Latvian National Opera and the Latvian National Ballet also open their doors for guided tours of the unique 19th-century architectural monument. Around 200 performances take place there during a season. This makes the opera a cultural focal point that combines architecture and a programme of performances beyond the individual visit. In addition to Riga, you can also select Mārupe (Mārupe) and Baldone (Baldone) as further travel destinations.

To the overview of the wider travel region: Riga.

More about the destination

Relevant information for planning your trip:

Riga.