Riga
Around 1900 Riga was the Russian Empire's third industrial city, and the wealth went into building at exactly the moment Jugendstil arrived — the result is the largest concentration of Art Nouveau in the world, roughly a third of the centre, much of it by Mikhail Eisenstein, father of the film director. Walk Alberta iela with your head up, because everything is in the top three storeys.
Why go
The world's greatest concentration of Art Nouveau — around a third of the centre's buildings. A Hanseatic port with a rebuilt medieval core — the House of the Blackheads and the guildhalls. The Central Market — five zeppelin hangars from the 1920s, full of Latvian food. A choral tradition that toppled a regime — the Singing Revolution, and a song festival since 1873.
The character
Riga was founded in 1201 by a German bishop, joined the Hanseatic League in 1282, and spent seven centuries under German, Swedish, Polish and Russian rule while remaining a Baltic trading city. Its wealth peaked around 1900, when it was the Russian Empire's third industrial city and the money went into building — which is why the centre holds more Art Nouveau than anywhere else in the world, around eight hundred buildings, many by Mikhail Eisenstein, father of the film director.
The Latvian half of the story is more recent and harder. Independence in 1918, Soviet occupation in 1940, Nazi occupation and the murder of almost all Latvian Jews, then Soviet rule until 1991. The path out was sung: a hundred thousand people gathered at the song festival grounds in 1988, and in 1989 two million people formed a human chain across the three Baltic states. The Song and Dance Festival, held every five years since 1873, involves choirs of tens of thousands, and it is not a folkloric performance but the country's political core.
Places of character
Alberta iela — Eisenstein's Art Nouveau street; look up, everything is in the top three storeys. Central Market — five 1920s zeppelin hangars, for smoked fish, rye bread and grey peas. House of the Blackheads — the guild house of unmarried merchants, rebuilt in 1999 from 1334 plans. Museum of the Occupation — the Soviet and Nazi occupations, told plainly and necessarily. Latvian National Museum of Art — a fine collection in a restored 1905 building. Jūrmala — the wooden-villa beach resort thirty minutes west on the Gulf of Riga.
The way to do it
Walk Alberta iela and the surrounding streets with your head up — the Art Nouveau is all above eye level. Eat at the Central Market. Give the occupation museum an hour, because the rest of the city makes more sense afterwards. And take the train to Jūrmala for the pine woods and the wooden villas.
One perfect day
Coffee, then Alberta iela and the Art Nouveau quarter with the faces, dragons and masks on the façades. The National Museum of Art mid-morning. Lunch at the Central Market: smoked eel, rye, and a plate of grey peas with bacon. Afternoon in the old town — the Blackheads, the guildhalls, the cathedral — then the Occupation Museum for an hour that changes the register. Late train to Jūrmala for the beach and the wooden villas in the pines. Back for dinner and a bar where the Latvian craft beer is unexpectedly good.
Grand hotels
Grand Hotel Kempinski Riga — an 1876 building on the boulevard ring, restored in 2016. Neiburgs — an Art Nouveau building in the old town, family-run and comfortable.
When to go
Best expression: June and July — white nights, Jūrmala open, and Midsummer celebrated seriously. Consider: the Song and Dance Festival, every five years, when the country sings. Avoid if possible: November and December, dark and wet before the snow.
The frame
Ideal stay 3 nights · Minimum 2 nights · Best arrival by air; the Baltic capitals are close by bus · Airport RIX, 10 km · Walkability excellent and flat · Best without a car yes