Riga in the mirror of eight centuries: a great overview

The tour covers the area of Old Riga, the famous Riga Boulevards and the unique quarters of Jugendstil.

You will see how Riga has changed over the centuries: narrow streets with peculiar names, fortress walls, the Powder Tower, the Swedish Gate, the Three Brothers complex, the Cat’s House, the Dome Cathedral, the Town Hall Square, the House of Blackheads, St. Peter’s Church and much more. During the tour, I suggest you to look at one of the cozy Riga cafes - relax and have a cup of coffee. I will show you Riga monuments that fulfill the cherished desires.

At the end of the first part of the tour we will approach Riga boulevards. Riga boulevards are said to resemble the boulevards of imperial Vienna. But Viennese boulevards are huge and majestic, and Riga boulevards are cozy and charming.

The guide’s story will immerse you in the realm of luxurious Art Deco – the last imperial style in the history of mankind, which arose in a brief era of careless happiness between the two World Wars. What was before on the site of the Bastion Hill, the National Opera and the Freedom Monument, where the Eighth Wonder of the World Bridge is located, why the gas factory looks like a castle, what is the Esplanade, and what exotic trees do well in the gardens of Riga, as well as other equally interesting stories on a pleasant walk in the center of Riga!

And now we have imperceptibly come to the quarters, where you can talk about the fantasies of Riga architects in the style of "Modern" and consider the unique, full of symbolism, details of the facades.

There lived in Riga one moderately well-fed official. Everything is like people: rank and rank, awards, family, forty pairs of lacquered shoes, opera in the evenings. But there was something restless, creative about this man. He had a hobby, a very important one: architecture. Eisenstein’s own ideas were not so much, but to embody others’ ideas, transforming them into masterpieces, the official was just brilliant. Its famous facades are drawn from samples in foreign magazines, architectural details can be found in the architectural masterpieces of Vienna and Leipzig.

Screaming women and lions on rooftops, Gorgons - Viennese Art Nouveau. The facade on Elizabetes Street is an obvious borrowing of the project of Leipzig architects. But the ability to place these details and their skillful execution, the ability to create a “mood” – the face of the house (funny or thoughtful) distinguish Eisenstein from other authors. In our small town, the sculptural decor got a completely different sound. Moreover, the most famous houses are located within a few blocks. Today, the “crazy cakemaker” is in honor: generations of tourists cannot admire the facades of his houses. Even indigenous Riga residents sometimes attract to the quiet street of Alberta to proud sphinxes and peacocks, Valkyries and lions, frozen against the blue sky.

Also on the excursion "Big overview: where in Riga Chaliapin, Sobinov, Vladimir Mayakovsky stayed, in what house Margarita was born from Bulgakov's novel, what is "national romanticism", how to protect the house from the dragon, and how to choose the style of dress fashionista of the Silver Age.