[Gatis]

This thread is to commemorate 1 year since we are in EU.
1st of May here was silent, sunny, a bit lazy day. Streets were almost empty and there were not too many tourists. Perfect day for photography in historical centre.
- - -
Today walked small part of Old Riga around the 80 m high Jekaba church. I really love this part of city because it is very pleasant, silent and rich with architecture. Even in grey weather it looks bright.

Sunday look to Vansu bridge

Riga skyline from Vansu bridge

Caste of Riga – seat of president

View in inner garden of Castle

Smaller building of castle complex – just renovated:

Detail of banking highschool on K. Valdemara Street 1b

Bank of Latvia – entrance

Courtyard near Jekaba Church. Everything looks ancient.

Front side of this building

Goethe Institut buildings

Some Catholic institution

Klostera Street

Entrance on St. Jekaba Church with two older ladies

Bell of St Jekaba Church high up in the air

Gothic details

Jekaba Street:

Jekaba square

Parliament building on Jekaba Street 11

Here work parliamentary commissions – Jekaba Street 10/12

Stone detail of neighbouring building on Jekaba Street

This building stands on corner of Jekaba and Smilsu Streets

Jugendstil on Smilsu Street 2

Smilsu Street

Arsenal – one of best Ampire style samples in Riga. Nowadays – exhibition hall

Arsenala Street

 

[Singidunum]

great pics but they are still loading.

wow today it was:
-orthodox easter

-worker's holiday

-jubilee of EU enlargment

 

[Hybrid 87]

wow today it was:
-orthodox easter

-worker's holiday

-jubilee of EU enlargment

3 in 1 ...

 

[devinci]

Great pics. I like the look of Latvia. Is Latvia generally as clean as the above streets?

From above, my favourite pics are #'s 17, 18, 19, 22, 24, 28.
Jekaba Square (#17) is the most striking for me. I like this old style building looks good with the new style buildings.

 

[Gatis]

No, unfortunately Latvia is not as clean as, f.e. Austrian countryside. It is not terribly littered but not very clean either. Things improve fast now - it is told that before WWII Latvia was very clean - only in Soviet times we got "spoiled".
A lot of historical buildings in Riga and outside it are in bad condition too - we got enormous amount of heritage and there is not enough money+good managers to maintain it now. F.e. Riga has got more than 8 000 ornate buildings in historical styles - but only 1 - 1,5 thousands could be in good condition to my estimates.
Again - here is quite fast improvement as well.

 

[lindenthaler]

Some very nice pictures

How s riga built ? Do main part of city has pre war buildings or commies ? do you have somewhere good map with overview of Riga ?

 

[Gatis]

Riga historical centre is a bit like onion with three layers:
- Old, medieval city in middle, 49 ha large. It has got mix of architecture from Romanesque to Minimalism styles. Approximately 600 valuable monuments. Almost no Soviet time buildings.
- Two rings of Boulevards and parks, which make Riga similar to Paris a little. Area - some 400 ha at least. Some 500 valuable Historism and Art Nouveau buildings. Almost no Soviet time buildings.
- Centrum, some 4 000 ha. May be the most valuable architecture asset of Riga, having some 5 000 valuable architecture monuments - mainly Art Nouveau and Historism. Almost no Soviet time buildings.

Riga is large city and there are some 5 - 7 more historical centres in the city - Agenskalns, Sarkandaugava, Maskacka etc. Each has a smaller separate city center with central plazas, historical architecture. Each of these smaller centres has its own style.
Besides this Riga is bordering with very ornate, historical suburb - Jurmala, having more than thousand ornate Art Nouveau villas.

There is a lot of Soviet buildings too, but happily not much mixed up with historical buildings.

Here you see Old City and part of Boulevards.

Here is seen part of Center too. Note that buildings there are 5 - 6 floors high and in many streets you feel like in deep trenches between endless ornate buildings

 

[Timoth12]

Nice pictures, really. And thanks for the deep and detailed information.

 

[MIMICA]

Riga is a very nice city. I'm glad that this thread was made. Hopefully more updates will be made in the near future.

 

[VelesHomais]

Gorgeous area and I must say professional photos.

My favorite photograph:

 

[intervention]

Beautiful! Riga really is inspiring

 

[ppnguyenngo]