Latvia Guide
Introduction to Latvia
Contemporary Latvia presents two very contrasting faces to visitors. The first is provided by the bustling, million-strong capital city of Rīga, where several centuries of fine architecture rub shoulders with a brash, rapidly developing commercial culture. Outside Rīga, however, Latvia comes across rather differently, as a restful country of market towns, farmsteads, forests and bogs. The Latvian landscape also offers stately homes, ruined castles and historic churches aplenty, although most of these bear witness to the waves of foreign occupiers who put down roots in Latvian soil. The most obvious destination is the capital, a boisterous, mercantile city whose Gothic red-brick heart is girdled by one of the richest collections of Art Nouveau apartment blocks anywhere in Europe. Its Old Town is a nest of narrow streets lined with buildings reflecting eight centuries of history, while nymphs, caryatids and a host of other creatures peer down from the richly ornamented facades of the nineteenth-century centre. Riga is also known for its varied and often wild nightlife, and offers easy access to the sands of Jūrmala, a seaside suburb northwest of the city.