St. Martin’s Lutheran Church is one of the most prominent churches in Riga. Until the middle of the 1800s, there was no Lutheran church in Pārdaugava (the name for the west bank of the Daugava River). As industry was growing, and more and more people were turning their backs on a rural way of life and heading to the city, there became a need for a Lutheran congregation across the river from the Old City. On the 300th anniversary of Martin Luther’s death in 1846, the local guild approved the building of a new church, appropriately named St. Martin’s, in the Āgenskalns neighborhood.
The church owes its design to the great Baltic German architect, Johann Felsko. Felsko spent 35 years creating the design and look of many of the structures in the centre of the city of Riga, designed in his signature Neo-Gothic style. Around 1850 he turned his attention to the design of the new church of St. Martin’s. The main building that you see today, as well as the rows of stately linden trees on either side of the church, are original to the 1850s and Felsko’s vision. Between the laying of the foundation stone in 1851 and the late 1890s, there were several changes and additions including the two massive brick towers in 1888 and a pipe organ in 1893.
St. Martin’s has played an important role in the lives of both the Zekants and the Rozenvalds families. Although many different religions have been practiced in Latvia over the centuries, the Lutheran denomination has been the most prevalent in the areas of Kurzeme, Zemgale and Vidzeme. Although the Zekants family spent about 10 years in the Baptist sect, both the Zekants and the Rozenvalds families were Lutheran for many generations.
Our family had its first connection with St. Martin’s Church when Lavize Rozentals married Karl Vimba in 1899. Their daughter, Elza, was baptized there in 1902. Andrejs Zekants married Lizette Rozenbergs there in 1906 and their daughter, Emilija, was baptized there in 1908. My husband’s great-grandparents, Žanis Zekants, and Emilija Rozentals, were married there as well in 1913 and they baptized their only son, Žanis Jr. at St. Martin’s in 1915. Emilija Rozentals’s younger sister, Anna Zelma, was married there in 1926 and their other sister, Olga, was married there in 1927. The Rozentals’s cousin, Elza Vimba was married at St. Martin’s 1928.
The church was built next to an already existing cemetery that had been there since the late 1700s which now became known as St. Martin’s Cemetery. It was in this cemetery in February, 1912 that Andrejs Zekants was laid to rest after his brutal murder in the street outside his pub by a drunk and angry customer. Originally there was a large gravestone there for him. The towering black cross contained the words ‘Saldu dusu’, which means something akin to ‘Sweet Dreams’ in Latvian. It is a common phrase to use on a loved one’s grave. This monument to Andrejs is long gone and the cemetery itself became overgrown and abandoned in the early 21st century but from recent reports there have been efforts to revitalize it.
This wouldn’t be the last family burial in the area. A larger cemetery, Lāčupes cemetery, just west of Iļģuciems, became a popular forested retreat for parishioners of St. Martin’s Church to be buried in. The following burials were recorded in the records of St. Martin’s: Anna Rozenvalds in 1914, Žanis Zekants in 1915 and Emilija Zekants (Rozenvalds) in 1917. During these devastating years of WWI, the city of Riga was heavily evacuated. But at the same time many wounded soldiers were coming in from the front. St. Martin’s opened up parts of its building as a temporary hospital for these men. Is this where Žanis died? Did the Rozenvalds sisters volunteer here as nurses? We will never know. Somehow the congregation continued to exist despite being on the front lines of the “war to end all wars”.
At the war’s end, the church received a new Pastor, Ernsts Stange. Pastor Stange was the head pastor of St. Martin’s Church from 1920 to 1944. During the Soviet occupation years, the church was lucky to be able to continue under the auspices of the Lutheran Church and over the course of many more years Pastor Stange’s son and grandson also served this church.
Lavize Vimba’s daughter, Elza, kept a small pamphlet from St. Martin’s 75th Anniversary celebrations in 1927. She wrote on the back the following text:
“In this church I was baptized, confirmed and married by minister Stange. And here my mother, Lavize Vimba, nee Rozenberga was married. She was a cousin of Aspazija’s.”
Seeing this was the first time I learned of the connection with the famous writer, Aspazija.
Today the church is a vibrant centre of worship and community service with a school, a newspaper, markets, concerts, services and more. It has also recently been updated for disability access. Find out what is happening at St. Martin’s at their website: Rīgas Mārtiņa draudzē.