Lady Hamilton 2019

RIGA

Day 39 Thursday, 27^th June 2019

Head off to the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia 1940 – 1991.  All these Baltic states have suffered so much.  Taking advantage of the Hitler – Stalin Pact, Latvia was occupied and annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940.  A year later Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union and occupied Latvia.  After the war, Latvia was re-occupied by the Soviet Union.  As a result of the occupations and World War 11 Latvia lost about one third of its population.  Tens of thousands lost their lives in the Holocaust, political murders, war action, in inhumane conditions in the Gulag and Nazi concentration camps.  Tens of thousands fled from Latvia at the war’s end fearing the return of Stalin’s regime.  Only on 21 August 1991, Latvia regained independence.

Did you know that in 1989 the ‘Baltic Way’ – a peaceful political demonstration – about two million people joined hands to form a human chain, spanning 675 km, from Tallinn to Riga to Vilnius?  This was to demonstrate a popular desire to be independent of their Soviet rule.

I love this teddy bear – so like mine.  This little girl refugee is at Visby on Gotland.  She must have fled there at the war’s end – hopefully with her parents.

After that we did the Dome Cathedral and cloisters.  This enormous (once Catholic, now Evangelical Lutheran) cathedral is the largest medieval church in the Baltic.  There are old stone tombs dotted on the floor and walls – eminent citizens would pay to be buried as close to the altar as possible!

This is Bishop Albert von Buxhoeveden who founded Riga in 1211.   He was on a crusade against the northern ‘heathens’ – the Balts, the Slavs and Finno-Ugric people – and it became a stronghold for the Knights of the Sword. 

Walking past the House of Blackheads. This was built in 1344 for the Blackheads guild of unmarried German merchants.  The house was decimated in 1941 and flattened by the Soviets 7 years later.  Somehow the original blueprints survived and an exact replica of this fantastically ornate structure was completed in 2001 for Riga’s 800^th birthday. 

Then St.Peter’s Church.

We’re going in a lift 72 m up the steeple, for 9 euros each. The spire was added in the 17^th century and instantly became a signature element of Riga’s skyline.  In 1721 the spire was destroyed in a blaze despite Russian emperor Peter 1 personally rushing to the scene to extinguish the fire.  The spire ended up being destroyed in WW11 and was resurrected again.

It’s soaring red-brick interior is relatively unadorned, except for heraldic shields mounted on the columns.  A colourful contrast is provided by the art exhibition staged in the side aisles – but none that I like! This was the weathervane – and there have been quite a few.

After that to the Rimi supermarket and home on a tram (the tram reminds the skipper of Liverpool where he was born) which drops us right by the marina.