City Overview
Over a decade after Latvia declared independence from the Soviet Union, Riga is a city on the up and up. In 2001, the city celebrated its 800th year and things have seldom looked so rosy for the cosmopolitan capital that was once revered across Europe as the ‘Paris of the North’. The promised land of both European Union and NATO membership beckons and, since 1991, the economy has been transformed beyond recognition. The city is now firmly on the tourist map. Riga is already the de facto Baltic business capital, leaving Estonia’s Tallinn and Lithuania’s Vilnius in its wake. Increasingly, for tourists, it is becoming the most rewarding city of the three, with visitor attractions spruced up and an ever-burgeoning proliferation of hotels at all levels. Riga, a city older than both Stockholm and St. Petersburg, is the only Baltic capital to have a real big-city buzz. Unfortunately it is increasingly suffering from all of the problems that face any large metropolis, with crime – including robbery and mugging of tourists – on the rise. Any lingering images of Communist deprivations, however, are quickly blasted away by a stroll around this city, with its gleaming renovated buildings, its fashion conscious mobile-phone carrying youth and the new bars and cafés that seem to be opening everywhere. On a sunny day, as the smart office workers vie for space in the city’s grand squares with students clad in all the latest designer gear, this could be anywhere in Europe.
Things have not always been so good for the Latvian capital, as throughout its turbulent history it has been routinely sacked, occupied, reoccupied and then sacked again, by everyone from the Teutonic Knights and the Swedes, through to the French and the Polish. In the 20th century came devastating invasions by the Nazis and Stalin. The Soviets left behind the eyesore housing estates on the city’s periphery and some lingering Stalinist era architecture. But their traces gradually are being paved over.
The focus, as it has always been, is firmly on the Old Town, which tumbles towards the banks of the Daugava River in a maze of cobbles, voluminous spires and impressive squares. It is ironic that the city that was once besieged and captured by Germany now has – after Germany’s own World War II obliteration – Europe’s most impressive array of Germanic Art Nouveau architecture. A fact recognised by UNESCO, on their World Heritage List. Across Bastekalns Park lies the New Town, the commercial and business heart of the city, with its broad avenues and grid-like layout, while further down river is the city’s sprawling port.
The Baltic Sea is just over 12km (seven miles) away but Riga’s weather is not as harsh as many people imagine. Winter can indeed be long, dark and bitter but spring and summer days are often blessed with balmy daytime temperatures and long hours of daylight. When the sun shines, the city’s numerous parks fill up, tables spill out of cafés and revellers laze along the city canal in rowing boats, in a scene that is more Mediterranean than Eastern European.
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