Riga art nouveau: The Old Town

The Cats' House

We had a great walk around the Quiet Centre recently to see the art nouveau buildings there. This walk was intended to see the various art nouveau buildings scattered around the Old Town. Detailed information on individual buildings is taken from a useful book found in Riga bookstores in several languages: Riga Art nouveau. I have headed this post with the best known, The Cats' House, named for the two cat sculptures on the roof.

We started in Andeju iela (street) and came first to number 7, apparently the oldest art nouveau building in the city ( by A. Aschenkampf, M. Scherwinsky, 1899). We loved the stylised trees and flower motifs under the window sills. It would doubtless look better if the façade was picked out in more contrasting colours.

Number 9 next door (K. Pēkšēns, 1900) was one of those buildings where you doubt that that the art nouveau label is really appropriate. The sun motif under the cornice is very lovely, but the presence if pilasters and pediments suggests that it is really a sort of Baroque revival.

We turned left in Kaleju iela and saw, at number 23, a proper art nouveau gem.  It dates from 1903 and the architect was P Mandelstamm.

The floral motifs over the windows are pure (by which I suppose I mean western European) art nouveau. Here is a closer look.

The extraordinary vertical motifs (stylised sunflowers?) are also a delight. The canopy over the doorway is the only let down, seeming coarse by comparison. A later addition? 

Further along Keleju number 6 is in a poor state of repair but the flower panels over the windows are lovely.

Now we turned left into Kalku iela to see another early example at number (now a branch of TGI Friday).

Turning into Skunu iela we spotted this interesting building on the right (the address is 1 Laipu iela). It has two dates on the pediment (1616 and 1903, so presumably the top storey was added in art nouveau style in 1903.

Further along Skunu at number 10/12 was this extraordinary sight: a building of 1902 covered in flower motifs.

We then turned right into Zirgu iela to reach Liv Square where went straight ahead to reach The Cats' House (1909, architect F Scheffel). Here is the impressive main doorway.

There is another art nouveau house next to it around the right hand side in the continuation of Zirgu iela.

Now into Smilsu iela, where number 8 (H. Scheel, F. Scheffel, 1902) has many Baroque revival qualities, including pilasters with elaborate capitals. However, there are some lovely decorative details …

 … and the doorway is exquisite.

The door happened to be open so I sneaked a look inside. The passageway was delightfully decorated in brown, cream and green.

Conditions: mostly mild and grey.

Distance: a a couple of miles.

Rating: four stars. A match for the more famous Quiet Centre.

Riga: River Daugava and the Spikeri quarter

The promenade along the Daugava

It's our final day in Riga and we are exploring some of the less touristy areas. We start by walking down to the Daugava river and turning left by the Stone Bridge. We have driven along the roads by the river several times as they provide the easiest way into and out of the part of the Old Town where we are staying, but walking is always the best way to really get to know somewhere.

The first sight of note is this oddly-shaped building on the left bank. It turns out that it is the Railway Museum.

Ahead of us, appropriately enough, is the Railway bridge, which is beautifully lit up at night, offering a great landmark.

We had read that beyond the Railway bridge on the right bank there is a relatively new promenade and, rather optimistically, I imagined something a little like the New York Highline. It isn't of course although there are some nice benches and plantings (see photo at the head of this post). Closer inspection revealed that some of the wood already needs re-varnishing and there are quite a few weeds. It seems they need the Highline's volunteer gardeners!

At the end of the section which has been upgraded there is a view towards this strange structure beyond the motorway bridge.  It is the Radio and Television Tower which was built with Russian money in 1979-89. It is apparently, at 368m, the tallest tower in the European Union (there are two higher ones in Russia). The Eiffel Tower is only 300m.

The final section of the promenade has curvy benches set against the wall.

We turned round and headed back, soon taking an underpass away from the river towards the arty suburb of Spikeri. At a physical level, this is principally know for a group of 19^th century brick warehouses which have been renovated and now office small businesses, restaurants and artists. It put me in mind of the Distillery District in Toronto.

Just beyond here, at a road junction there is a good view of one of Riga's landmarks, the Academy of Sciences. It was Riga's first skyscraper when it was built in 1953-7 and has Latvian folk imagery as well as hammer and sickle motifs. It became known as "Stalin's wedding cake". By its base you can see the Russian Orthodox church.

Doubling back from here we reached our final destination: the extraordinary Central Market.  

The Market is housed in five former Zeppelin hangars (four in a line and the other at right-angles to them) with each having a speciality: fish, meat, clothes etc. There is also a large fruit and veg marked outside. The hangars were abandoned by the German army when they retreated during the First World War and moved to their present location in the 1920s.

A short stroll brought us back to the now-familiar Old Town.

Conditions: Grey clouds, obviously. 20 degrees.

Distance: a couple of miles.

Rating: four stars. Interesting to see some different aspects of the city and places where residents go.

Sigulda: Three Castles Trail

 Sigulda station

Sigulda is the entry point of the Gauja National Park and we found this walk from Sigulda to Krimulda and Turaida, taking in three castles. The route starts at Sigulda's rather lovely station building (the information office is next door from where you can get a hard copy of the route).

Just in front of the station is the slim and elegant Laima Clock bearing the date 1870. A far cry from the much more elaborate sort of thing erected to celebrate Queen Victoria's Jubilee in England!

We headed off towards the old and new castles and were immediately drenched by a sharp rainstorm. The entrance to the castles is a fine mock gothic gateway …

 … and set in colourful gardens you first see the new castle built in 1878 with its wonderful, but entirely disproportionate, tower. There is a belvedere to the left of the new castle offering views over the valley towards Krimulda manor.

The old castle is behind the new one and is a fairly simple ruin. It was built originally in 1207 for the Order of the Brotherhood of the Sword (which sounds a bit Dan Brown) who later became the Livonian knights. These all seem to have been orders of warrior monks like the Knights Templar.

We retraced our steps and headed off towards the cable car, passing first of all the Lutheran church …

… and then the rather quirky Walking Stick Park established in 2007. Apparently Sigulda has a 200 year history of making walking sticks.

The path then leads to a cable car which crosses the Gauja Valley at a height of 42 m to reach Krimulda. There is a glimpse of Turaida castle as well.

Suddenly there was a moment of hilarity as a tree just below us seems to have a surprising occupant.

Once safely on the other side (we were surprised that most of the other occupants of the cable car didn't get out) we headed left to find Krimulda Manor House. This dates from 1822 and is now a centre for the rehabilitation of sick children. Judging by the water cascading over the gutters it is in a poor state of repair.

Just beyond it is the pleasing octagonal Steward's House which is thought to date from the 1820s.

We found our way to the rather minimal remains of Krimulda Castle (built 1255 and burnt down in 1601) and headed downhill along the Serpentine Road towards the valley bottom.

When we reached the bottom we headed towards Turaida along a path to the left of the road. Beside the path was a large grassy area with scattered silver birches. We spotted these lovely vetch-like flowers.

This section ended at the disappointing Gutman's Cave (the "biggest cave in Baltic" according to the leaflet). It is a shallow hole in the rock in and around which people have been inscribing versions of Kilroy was here since 1667.

From here we found a path through the woods towards Turaida, which at one point led up a set of no less that 309 wooden steps. At the top a view of Turaida suddenly presented itself. It was still necessary to follow the hillside around a way to arrive at the entrance to the Turaida Museum Reserve.

This is a surprisingly large estate containing many buildings apart from the castle including Turaida church dating from 1750 – one of the oldest wooden churches in Latvia. There are also lots of sculptures and other art works.

The highlight is undoubtedly the main tower of the castle built by the Brotherhood of the Sword in 1214. It was ruined by fire in 1776 and restored in modern times.

We had a nice glass of wine in the cafe and then caught the bus back to Sigulda.

Conditions: very wet at first, becoming brighter.

Distance: 10 km, 6.2 miles.

Rating: five stars. Great fun, especially the cable car, and full of interest, even if some of the sights are a little over-sold.

Rundāle Palace

Rundāle Palace

We are stopping off on our way back from Vilnius to Riga to see Rundāle Palace near Bauska. It is the grandest in the Baltics and was one of the locations used for the BBC's War and Peace. It was designed by Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli for Ernst Johann Biron, later Duke of Courland, in 1735-36, an era when Latvia was part of the Russian empire.

The park was also designed by Rastrelli and was totally renovated and replanted between 1979 and 2009.

As we approach, we can see that the Palace is rectangular, with the entrance leading to an open courtyard at one end. Our first view is above. The design is restrained and each window has a pleasing geometric pattern below it.

Our first decision is to walk around the outer perimeter, the other side of a shallow sort of moat. We were quickly rewarded when the sun came out briefly, making the Palace look even more inviting.

Here is the left side of the outer perimeter. The weather is not looking good!

At the corner we turn right, now parallel with the garden façade of the palace. We can see that a series of avenues radiate out from the rear façade and extend into the woodland beyond.

At the far corner we admire the line of trees …
 

… walk towards the palace again, to turn the final corner and arrive at the main entrance.

This is a very impressive space and happily most people seem to arrive at the side entrance so it is almost deserted.

The ground floor has a series of beautiful vaulted passages.

Upstairs, the rooms have been restored to a state of staggering opulence. As an illustration, this is the Duke's Bedchamber. The blue ceramic structures are for heating.

To be honest, it is hot and crowded and the rather over-the-top decorative style is not really our taste, so we do a whistle-stop tour and head outside. The grounds are divided into a series of zones: rose garden, parterres, etc. Here is one of the parterres.

This panoramic view, from a postcard, gives a better idea of the overall layout, although the plantings have grown a lot since it was taken.

Conditions: cloudy, rain threatening.

Distance: 2-3 miles.

Rating: four stars. Imposing, a bit overwhelming and the interior rather over-the-top.