Top reasons to visit the capital of Latvia, Riga, include the giant Riga Central Market, the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia and Mikhail Eisenstein’s extraordinary art nouveau architecture.
Town Hall Square – and the House of the Blackheads
Riga’s old town is hugely agreeable to stroll around, and in the last 20 years plenty of money has been pumped into restoring old apartment buildings, guild houses and churches. The Town Hall Square is the finest example of this, with the ziggurat-sided House of the Blackheads rebuilt and reopened in 2001. Take a little time to gawp at the blizzard of decorative flourishes on the exterior.
Riga Central Market – especially the gastronomic pavilion
Riga Central Market is supposedly the largest market in Europe, and its bizarre look is due to being based around five former zeppelin hangars. The meat pavilion is full of oddities such as pig’s heads and trotters. But the gastronomic pavilion – all posh food court stalls, deli counters and merchants selling a bewildering array of pickled goods – is the one you’d want to spend most time in.
The Panorama Riga observation deck
The Latvian Academy of Sciences in the Moscow District is very much love it or hate it. The nickname – Stalin’s wedding cake – is perfectly apt for this multi-tiered, clunking beast of a building. If you don’t like it, then head inside and up to the open-air Panorama Riga observation deck, which offers tremendous 360 degree views over a city that’s green-fringed and almost eerily flat.
The Museum of the Occupation of Latvia
The Museum of the Occupation of Latvia is, as you might expect, not exactly light-hearted. But it is really well presented, and gives illuminating explanations of the horrors Latvia suffered under the Nazi, and then the Soviet, regimes. The bits that strike home hardest are on how families were split as the country changed hands – some families had one son fighting for either side, and another for the resistance movement.
Mikhail Eisenstein’s art nouveau architecture
Riga has one of the world’s greatest collections of art nouveau buildings, most of which are concentrated in the Art Nouveau District north of the centre. The most remarkable efforts are by Mikhail Eisenstein, whose sumptuously OTT efforts on Elizabetes iela and Alberta iela throw everything into the mix. Human faces, toadstool-shaped windows, fake floors and Egyptian motifs are all in the mix.
Take an art nouveau walking tour to discover in more depth.
Latvian cuisine at Zviedru Varti
Latvian cuisine is undergoing a renaissance, with smoking and pickling things increasingly seen as a way of introducing new flavours rather than preserving ingredients. Forest foods are also back in fashion. Zviedru Vārtiinside a handsome 16th century old town building indulges this with its meaty dishes.
The Radisson Blu Latvija – and its Skyline bar
The Radisson Blu Latvija has solid business-focused rooms, but its real selling point is the Skyline bar on the 26th floor, which has expansive views out over the city. But getting up there for a cocktail or two is part of the fun – the lifts are on the exterior of the building, and you get a show as you climb up above the golden dome of the orthodox cathedral.
The home of the world’s first Christmas tree
In 1510, Riga erected what is believed to be the world’s first Christmas tree. A marker with token information on the city’s place in festive history can be found on the ground in Town Hall Square.
