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Photo: Toms Grinbergs
Photo: Armands Lācis, Fotocentrs
Photo: Armands Lācis
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Riga, the Metropolis of Art Nouveau The Art Nouveau architecture in Riga amazes with its quantity, diversity and supreme artistic quality. The Alberta and Elizabetes streets are famous for particularly exquisite and extravagant Art Nouveau buildings; however, countless examples can be found in all the districts of the city built around the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries.
A symphony in stone
Riga is known as the Art Nouveau Capital of Northern Europe
You like good architecture? Riga is a must then. Especially if you've discovered the wonders of the turn-of-the-century Art Nouveau or Jugendstil movement in art and architecture. Riga's buildings explode with gargoyles, nymphs and satyrs and are amongst the most imaginative ever done in this style. Start on the legendary Alberta Street, the very heart of Riga's Art Nouveau architectural wonderland. But don't stop there. Almost every Riga street has a surprise or two in store for you, but you have to look up. It's an amazing world up there. The large number of buildings and various styles has prompted many to think Riga has to be the Art Nouveau capital of Northern Europe. Decide for yourself.
Art Nouveau was a movement as well as a source of creative inspiration for many. Philosopher Isaiah Berlin and Latvian painter Janis Rozentals (who married the popular Finnish singer Ella Forsell) lived in these buildings, and so did the legendary filmmaker Sergey Eisenstein. Actually, Sergey had to. His father designed the building. Good architecture has been called frozen music. In that case, Riga is a symphony of exotic sounds captured in stone.
The Riga Art Noveau Museum opened in spring of 2009 to show the public what a typical Riga apartment looked like at the beginning of the 20th century. At the moment, the museum displays one fully renovated apartment with authentic interior and a vast array of exhibits, which present a compelling picture of the Art Noveau epoch in Riga.
The drawing room, for instance, demonstrates how guests were received for an afternoon tea to discuss latest fashion trends in Paris, listen to some good music, maybe sing a few songs, whereas the fireplace room paints the picture of the guests and the man of the house sitting comfortably in their chairs near the fire for a glass of wine and a small chat.
The dining room, where the entire family dined, often together with their friends, is the most lavishly decorated room in the apartment. The interior of the dining room is characterised by certain archaic rules and canons of the beginning of the 20th century: in the middle of the room there is the dining table with the table setting characteristic of the Art Noveau period, on one wall there is a mirror decorated in the same style as the stained glass windows of the room and stained glass doors on a cupboard. The furniture, with intricately carved ornaments and stained glass decorations - all made by local craftsmen - is on par with the best European furniture of that time.
On the other hand, in the kitchen, hung on shiny brass hooks, there are kettles, ladles, graters and pans - the entire set of utensils for a proper housewife or a maid.
To present visitors with a full picture of what life was like in an Art Noveau building at the beginning of the 20th century, the museum also features a study, a bedroom, maids’ quarters, a water closet and a bathroom.
The Art Noveau Museum is located in an apartment where the outstanding Latvian architect Konstantīns Pēkšēns (1859-1928) lived and worked from 1907. The museum is located at 12 Alberta Street, the building was constructed in 1903 as a private home for Konstantīns Pēkšēns.
Added video file: "Riga of Art Nouveau", script and text by Laima Slava, montage by Gunta Ikere, cameras: Uldis Veiss, Jānis Eglītis, Uldis Jancis, sound: Normunds Kļaviņš. Publisher: "Neputns".
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