Riga photo collection place by place

[Vecais Sakarnis]

Some forumers have said that could be interesting to see the less known and unknown parts of N&B cities (and I also always look at those pictures with very strong interest) I decided to make a special thread devoted to Riga where I am going post my new & old pictures of Riga organizing them by places. That means, every time when I post here will be pictures from only one particular area in Riga.



This time - triangular area between railway, Gogoļa and Dzirnavu streets (approximately 0,2 km2) that is neighboured to centre in southern direction. Here you see it in the map (small red triangle):



1. Facade of apartment building next to Transport ministry of Latvia and railway



2. Wealthy people live here, the courtyard is full of great cars



3. View to that square beside that courtyard. Science Academy highrise dominates the view around this district - you will see it from some other angles in next pictures also



4. Looking back to railway. City centre over there. Reval Hotel Latvia overtops.



5. Outside the centre, but - no escape from great architecture in Riga!



6.



7. Here you see how the railway delimits this area. In the right direction trains goes to Daugavpils and Russia - Moscow, to the left - to Jelgava and Liepāja.



8. Two massive apartment gigants from different times. First one - newer...



9. ... second - older:



10.



11. View to the Puškina street to Daugava riverside direction



12. Some boxy, depressing and boring looking apartment building



13.



14.



15. Dzirnavu street southern part. Further to north this street goes through the centre, cross it south-north.



16. Even here, some 1 km from Riga Central Market, is building which resembles the style of market warehouses



17.



18. Dzirnavu street again



19. Quite weird - wooden fence from one side, masonry wall from other, building in the middle



20.



21. Dzirnavu street tunnel below the railway - go through and you're in centre



22.



23.



24. Science Academy from one courtyard



25.



26.



27. Jēzusbaznīcas (Jesus Christ Church) street - Latvian Television highrise in background



28. Memorial in commemoration of jews killed in Latvia in 1941-1945. It was built in 1993.



29.



30.



31.



32.



33.



34.



35. Some interesting wooden architecture



36. Old warehouses



37. Sad view:



38.



39.



40. Going back to centre direction



41. Once - a proud king, now - a beggar that struggles for survival. Luxury has gone, but the greatness and charm is still there:



42.



43. That old warehouse complex from other side:



44. Dress for pregnant womans, fortunetelling & astrology salon and hairdressing salon - all in this lovely wooden house



45. Some playing with reflections:



46. Orthodox church in Gogoļa street - built in 1818. Construction costs in terms of money of that times - 116 000 roubles.



47. Finally Science Academy by itself:



48.



49.



50.



51. Over street - Central Market



52. Stockmann's urban brutality:



53. Ministry of Transport - enormous building



54. Riga time

[Gatis]

Great!

This church has been built over another - older late Barocco church. If you are lucky to go inside - the old interior is gorgeous!

[ristov]

oh, how i love those little bit abandoned yards, ESPECIALLY in riga

[Jarmo K]

ah yes, very-very familiar area - i have wandered here many times! my favorite building here is that big wooden church seen in 2 of your photos.

this is a very-very good idea for a thread, i wish you good luck for the next phototours!

(but i would love to see some OTHER side of daugava as well - very rarely we've seen it in this forum... i'm planning to take a little nigh-trip to tornakalns and agenskalns which gatis showed me the last time i was in riga - lovely places! i hope not to dangerous for a lone walker at night! )

[Vecais Sakarnis]

Thanks! Yes, Tornakalns un Agenskalns are very beautiful areas - one of my top-destinations in Riga for in-depth exploration this year. But hard to imagine how safe & light they are in night.

[Nõgesh]

Damn, I like that nice building in the 41st pic, too bad it's in a condition like that.

[staff]

Very nice shots. Love the grit!

[varlamas]

Originally Posted by Vecais Sakarnis

41. Once - a proud king, now - a beggar that struggles for survival. Luxury has gone, but the greatness and charm is still there:

What an amazingly grand building! I hope it gets reconstructed soon like many other such fine buildings in Riga. Thanks for such an informative photo-tour.

[FREKI]

Great work and pics mate - I recongnice a few places from the meet up last summer, especially the Science Academy

[Nomels]

Beautiful - thanks for sharing, man

[Rebasepoiss]

High contrast...so common in the Baltics:

[Mulefisk]

Fantastic shot. I love the sort of depleted atmosphere in your shots.

[Þróndeimr]

Nice thread!

Originally Posted by Vecais Sakarnis

Some forumers have said that could be interesting to see the less known and unknown parts of N&B cities

Yes, and also would be cool to see grand photothreads (NO to googled pics, do it all yourself!) of some different cities than our capitals, so much is unknown.

[Nomels]

Originally Posted by Þróndeimr

Nice thread!



Yes, and also would be cool to see grand photothreads (NO to googled pics, do it all yourself!) of some different cities than our capitals, so much is unknown.

Great suggestion, I'm in

[Vecais Sakarnis]

Time for another area exploration in Riga. This time it will be remote and ugly area not far from Riga south-eastern border - Pļavnieki district and part of Dārzciems district, consisted mainly of warehouses, industrial buildings and commieblocks. So, don't wait anything aesthetic and beautiful, more to common post-Soviet urban views. Area is quite big - around 2 sq.km, but not too many pictures, because not much at least slightly interesting to see there. Here you see area in the map (red - active exploration area, blue - previous shown areas).




1. We start with look to Katlakalna street, our way leads forward to it, where in the background you can see Pļavnieki commie district:



2. This street is surrounded by extensively built-up area, where ugly Soviet time storehouse & industrial buildings... (like these)



3.



4.



5. ...mixes with much better looking new ones:



6.



7. While in Bauska I surprisingly met real horse feeding in the meadow, here I found nothing better than this one:



8. Pļavnieki commieblock wall over there:



9. Here Katlakalna street becomes A. Saharova street, local supermarket on the corner:



10. We're coming closer to Pļavnieki commies



11. So called "french project" highrises up to 18 storeys high built of in-situ reinforced concrete. The casting design was commissioned in France, the buildings in this series were built floor by floor, filling the castings with concrete.



12. Don't know what's these massive pipes. Maybe someone knows?



13. I like they



14. In this picture looks like those 2 trucks competes in streetrace It wasn't that, thank God!


15. Those pipes are seemingly endless:



16. The city is constructing new commieblocks here...



17. ...beside the old ones:



18. If I had to choose where to live in this district that would be one of these 2 quite human-looking apartment highrises:



19. Weird - cosy wooden restaurant in the middle of concrete jungle:



20.



21.



22. Some flower kiosks alongside the pavement:



23. Lubānas street with view to TV Tower, which is 4 km away (air distance)



24. Just a nice early-spring flowers in the garden (with not so nice housekeeper who came to curse with me about photographing):



25. The End

[Gatis]

Ha, that is the depressive district in Riga There could be uglier places in Riga, but I feel depressed exactly in this one.


One of our late high-tech factories Producing glass, which lets through per 8% more light than common glass:
http://www.groglass.lv/index.php?name=products

[Geborgenheit]

Nice pictures of Pļavnieki. Picture number 8 makes an impression, that commieblocks are surrounded by long grey wall like some kind of ghetto. However, the price of m2 in such commieblocks is about 2000 Euro. You won't believe it.

[Alexriga]

Originally Posted by Alauda

Nice pictures of Pļavnieki. Picture number 8 makes an impression, that commieblocks are surrounded by long grey wall like some kind of ghetto. However, the price of m2 in such commieblocks is about 2000 Euro. You won't believe it.

At least along with Imanta or Purvciems this districts are quiet safe even at night. You could walk in historical Tornakalns or Agenskalns at night, in many places it dangerous and annoying. Freakin criminals around, drunks and druggers. No wonder people are happy to run away from my district (Tornakalns) to "depressive" Plavnieki or Imanta.

[ristov]

according to those 2 pictureshows here:
damn, riga is the only city in n&b area which has DIVERSITY.
and a very unpopular opinion: i don't want that everything in riga will be renovated because then it's soooooo booooring. a real metriopol should have its "black" areas

[Vecais Sakarnis]

Originally Posted by ristov

and a very unpopular opinion: i don't want that everything in riga will be renovated because then it's soooooo booooring. a real metriopol should have its "black" areas

For now, we have too much those "black areas". Sometimes it's really depressing, even in the centre, for example, Čaka street with all its beautiful architecture but those dirty, faded facades... just sad. Maybe you're right and there is no need for Riga to be like those over-clean and perfect German or Scandinavian cities, it's a bit boring really. But today's look is just too much on the other end of scale. Maybe great compromise would be like those southern European cities - Barcelona, Lisbon, f.e., which in overall looks renovated and developed, but at the same time have quite many "scarred" buildings as well. "Black" areas had to be like a salt and pepper to meal - not otherwise.

Originally Posted by ristov

according to those 2 pictureshows here:
damn, riga is the only city in n&b area which has DIVERSITY.

Really?? Tallinn hasn't diversity of "black" and "white" areas? F.e., Kopli area and Old Town? Vilnius hasn't? I think, it's very common for all Baltic states.