Olga’s “Party Picture”
This is definitely my favourite of all the old photos my father-in-law has from his father’s family. My husband and […]
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Birth, Death & Chocolate – 11 Miera Street (Part 2)
History & Style In the first years of the 20th century, architects such as Mikhail Eisenstein created the opulent buildings
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Birth, Death & Chocolate – Miera Street, Riga (Part 1)
The name for this street, ‘Miera iela’ or ‘Peace Street’ in English, goes back to the mid-19th century. But until
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Baltic Germans – Legacy of the Crusades
Founding and Early History More than seven centuries ago, groups of Teutonic knights and warrior monks (known as the Livonian
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SS Baltabor – A Baltic Steamer Ship
This steamer ship started its life in 1911 as a Danish-made vessel christened ‘Libaya’ or ‘Libau’, built for use by
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Murderer Exonerated – The Tragic Death of Andrejs Zekants
The world suddenly stopped. The cold dark winter air was violently sucked from his lungs. Andrejs stumbled but kept on
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A Dangerous Sect – Baptists in Latvia
In the middle of the 19th century, most people in modern-day Latvia were either Lutheran, Russian Orthodox or Jewish. These
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The 1897 All-Russia Census
In the winter of 1897, a census was taken across the entire Russian Empire. It was the first and last
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Disaster at Okte Manor
As evening set in on a frigid day in mid-December, with the winter sun already hidden away, a small group
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Lāčupes Cemetery – A Forest Oasis in Riga
Lāčupes cemetery is a serene wooded oasis just north of the industrial neighborhood of Iļģuciems in Riga, located in the Kleistu
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Three Days of Glory – A Romanov Visit to Riga in 1910
For three days in the middle of 1910, the city of Riga hosted an unprecedented visit by the Tsar of
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Daugavpils Prison “The White Swan”
An imposing white brick building rises four stories high in the center of Daugavpils City. It is surrounded by an
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Valdemārs Sailing Schools / Valdemāra jūrskola
In 1864, the famous Latvian scholar and nationalist, Krišjānis Valdemārs, founded a school in the northern coastal town of Ainaži.
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St. Martin’s Lutheran Church, Riga
St. Martin’s Lutheran Church is one of the most prominent churches in Riga. Until the middle of the 1800s, there
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Iļģuciems – Industrial Riga in the Early 20th Century
The neighbourhood of Iļģuciems on the west bank of the Daugava River in Riga was an important industrial centre as
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