Hybrids 1100km trip (Part 2 of 8 - Liepāja)

Liepāja tram line is oldest electrified tram line in Baltics (1899)! Current length is only 6,9 km but city has some plans to extend it. We also had tram line in Jūrmala (Ķemeri) but unfortunately that line was disbanded after first world war.

Jedrzej said:

So you have 3 cities with trams. Interesting. I've been in all three baltic states in 2005, and then few more times only in Lithuania. So I knew that there are trams in Riga and Tallinn, but because there aren't any tram lines in Vilnius and generally in Lithuania I thought that in baltic states there are no more cities with tram lines (If there isn't any trams in such big and important city as Vilnius or Kaunas, there aren't any trams in other cities).
So I'm really impressed about that Have you got any maps showing tram routes in Daugavpils and Riga?

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Latvia before 1914 was like little Germany - ruling class was German, and so were the engineers and architects. Level of development in Latvian cities was comparable to the cities and towns of the same size in Germany. Russian Empire used Latvia as the industrial base, because no one else in the empire had such industrial capabilities as Baltic Germans.

On the other hand, Lithuania and Poland* were "mutineer" provinces of Russian Empire that were constantly fighting for independence and punished by the Russians, while Latvia saw unprecedented development. Never since 1914 has Latvia seen so much industry and development in relative terms. I read somewhere, that before WWI there were several hundred (300-400?) apartment buildings built in a year in Riga alone. It's really sad that 90 years later IN RELATIVE TERMS (compared to the rest of the Western world) we are still very much behind what we had before WWI. (Ok, a lot of families have much more than they had then, but back in early 1900s even Sweden or Holland had much more poor people).

Anyway, comparing Latvia in its economical glory days of pre-WWI era to Lithuania or Poland is not really appropriate. I suspect that it's also true about 1920s and 1930s, but unfortunately, sources about that period in Latvian history are full of nationalistic bravado and hard to find hard data on.

*partition that belonged to Russia, that is.

raz said:

Latvia before 1914 was like little Germany - ruling class was German, and so were the engineers and architects. Level of development in Latvian cities was comparable to the cities and towns of the same size in Germany. Russian Empire used Latvia as the industrial base, because no one else in the empire had such industrial capabilities as Baltic Germans.

On the other hand, Lithuania and Poland* were "mutineer" provinces of Russian Empire that were constantly fighting for independence and punished by the Russians, while Latvia saw unprecedented development. Never since 1914 has Latvia seen so much industry and development in relative terms. I read somewhere, that before WWI there were several hundred (300-400?) apartment buildings built in a year in Riga alone. It's really sad that 90 years later IN RELATIVE TERMS (compared to the rest of the Western world) we are still very much behind what we had before WWI. (Ok, a lot of families have much more than they had then, but back in early 1900s even Sweden or Holland had much more poor people).

Anyway, comparing Latvia in its economical glory days of pre-WWI era to Lithuania or Poland is not really appropriate. I suspect that it's also true about 1920s and 1930s, but unfortunately, sources about that period in Latvian history are full of nationalistic bravado and hard to find hard data on.

*partition that belonged to Russia, that is.

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Well, ok. Riga looks like German city. But you countryside doesn't look like that at all. And I'm not saying it because of today level of development, because I understand that you need time to renovate everything (on the other hand you are independent country for nearly 20 years. Polish countryside looks far better than Latvian.) but because of it's architecture. Small towns and villages which were shown in some threads here looks really bad because of it's totally chaotic and in most cases just ugly architecture. For example this street is as I think main pedestrian area. Even if everything will be renovated here, it still wouldn't be nothing special (BTW those lamps are tragic).
About comparing pre I WW Latvia to Poland. It isn't so easy in our case. You have to remember that Poland on contrary to Latvia was divided into 3 countries, not just one. And actually around 30% of todays Poland was a part of Russia, the rest was in Germany and Austria. Another difficult thing is that our todays borders are completely different than those in 1939. But I have to say, that cities like Warsaw which before II WW was something like 5th biggest city in Europe (if you don't count Russia) was really rich city (for example first skyscrapers in Europe were built in Warsaw and thwy still exist), the same witch citeis like Lviv which was one of the riches cities in former Austria-Hungary, or Poznań which also was really rich city and still is. I love Riga very much, as well as Latvia but Riga wasn't comparable to Warsaw. Rigas population in period between wars was decresaing and on 1940 riched 353 800, Warsaw population was growing very fast and in 1939 riched 1 289 000. The city was comparable to Paris or London and was really important city in Europe. I don't think that Riga was on the same lavel

Oh, yes, Warsaw built first skyscrapers in Europe, of course

Regarding our countryside - we got 20 years... but our countryside is deserted, people escape it. Soviet colchos system was artificially sustained and it's collapse ruined practically everything. Now we will see painful, slow coverage with forest in our countryside and I don't think that it will be lively ever in the future. Some find something to do there, but in general there is no place for Latvian countryside in contemporary economics. May be someday, if state will pour billions each year to keep it alive artificially.

Regarding that pedestrian street in Liepaja - that's one of the most beautiful streets in this interesting town. Each house there is ornate and diverse, the height and style of the buildings is diverse what makes this street especially interesting. Hybrid has a bit specific way to take pictures - that's why it might look a bit on the grey side. Lamps are from middle 1980ies, genuine Postmodern style. It's also part of history - in 1980ies there was a trend to make pedestrian streets like this. It is very common to hate the latest style, when the new one is taking over - but we have to survive this and keep the monuments.