Riga is often called a city of parks, a city of Art Deco, the city of inspiration – and rightly so. These labels are all valid, but to the list we could easily add another concept – Riga as a city of museums. There are more than 50 museums in the capital city of Riga, inviting one and all to learn about the history of Riga and of Latvia. Visitors can also learn about the Latvian fine arts, the sciences and many other subjects of interest, all presented through a whole series of interesting displays. These museums are of interest to local residents, to all Latvians and to our country’s guests, too.
Riga is well on its way to becoming a true tourist metropolis. Colorful festivals and major events undoubtedly attract the attention of tourists. People are cordially invited to spend some time, to enjoy themselves, to experience feelings and emotions that are once in a lifetime feelings and emotions in terms of their nature and their essence. No holiday lasts forever, though. Sooner or later all good things must come to an end. One of the most significant aspects of the attractiveness of Riga, therefore, is something that is stable, unchanging and with a sense of permanence and infinite accessibility. Those are the city’s museums. Riga’s museums form a stable and unwavering foundation for the city’s cultural life, and this particular aspect of the city’s culture is one that you can always count on. Museums and galleries offer you contacts with authentic witnesses to history, with pieces of fine art, with all kinds of interesting information. In many museums, there are opportunities for participation.
The thematic range of Riga’s museums is extensive. They cover branches such as history (the Latvian Museum of History, the Latvian War Museum, the Riga Museum of the History of Riga and Navigation, the Latvian Ethnographic Open-Air Museum, the Latvian Occupation Museum, the Mentzendorf House, the museum of the Latvian People’s Front, the “Jews in Latvia” museum, the “Dauderi” museum of culture); art (the National Museum of Fine Art, the Museum of Decorative and Applied Arts, the Museum of Foreign Art); literature (the Museum of Writing, Theatre and Music, the Andrejs Upītis Memorial Museum, the Ojārs Vācietis Memorial Museum, the Aleksandrs Čaks Memorial Museum, the Jānis Akurāters Museum and the Krišjānis Barons Memorial Museum); nature (the Latvian Nature Museum); medicine (the Pauls Stradiņš Museum of Medical History, the Museum of Pharmacy, the Jēkabs Prīmanis Museum of Anatomy).
Latvia’s institutions of higher education also have their own museums. This is true with respect to the University of Latvia, the Riga Technical University and the “Turība” Business University. The progress of technology and history can also be seen as the Riga Motor Museum, the Mini Motor Museum, the Lattelekom Telephone Museum, the VEF History Museum, the Latvian Railroad History Museum and the Museum of Aviation.
There are also museums that are devoted to specific areas of interest. These include the Eduards Smiļģis Theatre Museum, the Riga Museum of Cinematography, the Latvian Museum of Photography, the Latvian Television Museum, the Riga Porcelain Museum, the Latvian Fire-fighting Museum, the Latvian Sports Museum, the Latvian Museum of Architecture, and the Latvian Museum of the History of Electricity.
Guidebooks about Riga also mention historical landmarks such as the Riga Dome Cathedral, the Riga History and Maritime Museum (which is the oldest museum in the Baltic region), and the unique outdoor Latvian Ethnographic Museum on the shores of a lake just outside of the city. Even though these museums are symbols of Riga, there are many smaller museums that are also very interesting. It is in these smaller museums that visitors can get a close-up look at the past, at colorful Latvian personalities. Visitors can view Riga through the eyes of those who at one time were the city’s residents. The Mentzendorf House, for instance, offers visitors a chance to look at how wealthy Rigensians lived in the 17th and 18th century – what the house looked like, what daily life involved, etc. A visit to the museum which commemorates the painter Janis Rozentāls and the writer Rūdolfs Blaumanis is also a visit back in time, to the beginning of the 20th century when Art Deco prevailed in Riga. The museum is found in an authentically preserved flat. The air of creative intelligence and academia of the early 1930s is well preserved in the former home of the writer Jānis Akurāters in the Rīga neighborhood of Pārdaugava. Nearby, on the shores of the Māra Pond, one can find the Ojārs Vācietis Memorial Museum and the Andrejs Upītis Memorial Museum Flat. Both men were writers, and here the visitor will be transported back to the latter half of the 20th century, encouraged to think about the relationship between creative individuals and official regimes and ideologies.
The most extensive source of information about Riga’s museums is the Internet homepage of the Latvian Association of Museums, found at www.muzeji.lv.