LATVIA
This beautiful country is located between Lithuania to the south and Estonia to the north and has as its capital RIGA, the largest city of the Baltic Republics with around one million inhabitants, a city which at the time of the USSR was the third largest city in the Soviet Union after Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Riga, in addition to being the largest, is also the liveliest city and like the other Baltic capitals it is protected by UNESCO for its artistic value as a liberty or art nouveau or Jugendstil city. There are around 700 buildings considered of artistic interest.
Riga has a circular historic center with two enormous churches, the Palace of the Blackheads which was the one representing celibate traders, two palace museums that look like castles, the Large and Small Gilda, a large television tower, many squares with beautiful buildings where in the evening they play music in the bars and restaurants frequented by locals and tourists.
There are ancient doors and many museums, four large hangars which contain a very interesting market and then the new part or Riga Centr adjacent to the historic center and full of parks, a canal and a square with the monument to Freedom personified by a woman holding up three stars, the three regions of the country. In the surrounding area there is a beautiful theater and an elegant Orthodox church.
From the nearby via Elisabetta begins the circuit of Art Nouveau buildings which extends into some streets at the end of the same to form a sort of triangle, but then if you observe the buildings in the historic center, it is observed that almost all of them have valuable facades.
Outside Riga, just half an hour by local train you reach the beautiful beach of IURMALA, a well-known beach frequented for at least two centuries by holidaymakers who have filled it of beautiful wooden villas in the shade of the pine forest that runs adjacent to the sandy coast. The beach is frequented mainly by Russian tourists and perhaps for this reason it is not so loved by the citizens of Riga who can't stand a Russian presence which reaches the majority in the capital. The Russians hold part of the economic power and the most profitable activities and tend to speak only their language.
A couple of hours by train to the east you reach SIGULDA, a town on the outskirts of a national park and a circuit of 6 km through various castles and caves in the middle of woods and streams, up to the castle of Turaida famous for the legend of the Rose of Turaida.
A little girl was found on a battlefield and then raised by the local prince. She became a very beautiful and contented girl, but she was in love with the gardener's son. A gentleman fell in love with her and wanted to make her his, but she preferred to die rather than give in.
Instead, towards the south you reach Bauska and the beautiful castle of RUNDALE, of the Grand Duke of Courland, a favorite of the Tsarina who had it built in the 18th century and which was designed by the Italian architect Rastrelli who then expressed his genius in the construction of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg.
The palace is very beautiful, with a garden park full of roses and surrounded by a moat. The rooms of the palace are very elegant and enriched with precious furniture and ceramic stoves. Only 40 rooms of the 180 have been restored, but the work is still progressing and it is hoped that the palace, the Latvian Versailles, will return to its former glory after becoming an infirmary and a school during the period of Soviet communist occupation.
In short, Latvia is a beautiful country full of interesting places, very green and relaxing, but also rich in history and art, all worth visiting.
Riga, in addition to being the largest, is also the liveliest city and like the other Baltic capitals it is protected by UNESCO for its artistic value as a liberty or art nouveau or Jugendstil city. There are around 700 buildings considered of artistic interest.
Riga has a circular historic center with two enormous churches, the Palace of the Blackheads which was the one representing celibate traders, two palace museums that look like castles, the Large and Small Gilda, a large television tower, many squares with beautiful buildings where in the evening they play music in the bars and restaurants frequented by locals and tourists.
There are ancient doors and many museums, four large hangars which contain a very interesting market and then the new part or Riga Centr adjacent to the historic center and full of parks, a canal and a square with the monument to Freedom personified by a woman holding up three stars, the three regions of the country. In the surrounding area there is a beautiful theater and an elegant Orthodox church.
From the nearby via Elisabetta begins the circuit of Art Nouveau buildings which extends into some streets at the end of the same to form a sort of triangle, but then if you observe the buildings in the historic center, it is observed that almost all of them have valuable facades.
Outside Riga, just half an hour by local train you reach the beautiful beach of IURMALA, a well-known beach frequented for at least two centuries by holidaymakers who have filled it of beautiful wooden villas in the shade of the pine forest that runs adjacent to the sandy coast. The beach is frequented mainly by Russian tourists and perhaps for this reason it is not so loved by the citizens of Riga who can't stand a Russian presence which reaches the majority in the capital. The Russians hold part of the economic power and the most profitable activities and tend to speak only their language.
A couple of hours by train to the east you reach SIGULDA, a town on the outskirts of a national park and a circuit of 6 km through various castles and caves in the middle of woods and streams, up to the castle of Turaida famous for the legend of the Rose of Turaida.
A little girl was found on a battlefield and then raised by the local prince. She became a very beautiful and contented girl, but she was in love with the gardener's son. A gentleman fell in love with her and wanted to make her his, but she preferred to die rather than give in.
Instead, towards the south you reach Bauska and the beautiful castle of RUNDALE, of the Grand Duke of Courland, a favorite of the Tsarina who had it built in the 18th century and which was designed by the Italian architect Rastrelli who then expressed his genius in the construction of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg.
The palace is very beautiful, with a garden park full of roses and surrounded by a moat. The rooms of the palace are very elegant and enriched with precious furniture and ceramic stoves. Only 40 rooms of the 180 have been restored, but the work is still progressing and it is hoped that the palace, the Latvian Versailles, will return to its former glory after becoming an infirmary and a school during the period of Soviet communist occupation.
In short, Latvia is a beautiful country full of interesting places, very green and relaxing, but also rich in history and art, all worth visiting.
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