Riga: The Baltic’s Art Nouveau Capital
Riga keeps drawing me back, and I have spent some time working out exactly why. It is not the largest or most obvious Baltic capital. Tallinn has the more perfectly preserved medieval old town. Vilnius has the more surprising bohemian energy. But Riga has the architecture — 800 buildings in the Jugendstil (Art Nouveau) style concentrated in a ten-block district that is simply unlike anything else in the world — and it has the Central Market in those extraordinary Zeppelin hangars, and it has a Baltic honesty and directness that I find deeply appealing.
The history is written everywhere in Riga. The city was occupied by Nazi forces from 1941-1944, when almost the entire Jewish population was murdered. Before that, Soviet occupation from 1940-1941. After the war, Soviet occupation again until independence in 1991. The Museum of the Occupation handles this without romanticising it, and walking through the city with that history in mind gives even the Art Nouveau facades — built in the prosperous years of the early 20th century before it all fell apart — a poignant dimension. Riga is a city that has been through extraordinary things and come out the other side with its identity intact.
The Arrival
Bus 22 from Riga Airport drops you at the edge of the Old Town. Walk past the medieval walls, cross into Vecriga, and within ten minutes you are standing in front of a building on Alberta iela whose facade is covered in grotesque face carvings, floral spirals, and sinuous female figures in stone. This is why you came to Riga. Look up.
Why Riga Keeps Drawing Me Back
The Art Nouveau district alone would justify a visit to Riga. But the city layers other pleasures on top of the architecture: the best smoked fish in Europe at the Central Market, a medieval Old Town with genuine depth (not just postcard prettiness), a bar and restaurant scene that has developed rapidly in the past decade, and proximity to the Baltic Sea at Jūrmala for a genuine Nordic beach day. Riga is a city that holds multiple experiences simultaneously.
What Should You Do in Riga?
The Art Nouveau District
The stretch of streets immediately north of the Old Town — particularly Alberta iela, Elizabetes iela, and Strēlnieku iela — contains the world’s highest concentration of Art Nouveau (Jugendstil) architecture. More than 800 buildings in this style were constructed in Riga between 1896 and 1913, during a period of extraordinary economic growth fueled by the city’s position as the Russian Empire’s major western port.
Walk Alberta iela slowly from one end to the other. Every building is different: Number 2 has grotesque masks and leonine faces. Number 4 has sinuous female figures flanking the entrance in the full Viennese Secession style. Number 13 is a masterpiece of symmetrical organic ornament. The Riga Art Nouveau Museum (Alberta iela 12, EUR 8) occupies a period apartment preserved exactly as it would have appeared in 1903, with original Art Nouveau furniture, wallpapers, and decorative objects — the single best introduction to the style in context.
The Old Town (Vecriga)
Riga’s medieval Old Town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site of Gothic churches, guild houses, and medieval warehouse facades concentrated around the Dome Cathedral and the market square at Doma laukums. The Dome Cathedral (Rīgas Doms) is the largest medieval church in the Baltic states, built from the 13th century onward. Its famous organ (one of the largest in the world at the time of installation) still hosts regular concerts — check the program at the visitor centre.
The House of the Blackheads (Melngalvju nams) on Rātslaukums is a reconstructed merchant guild hall of extraordinary ornamental richness — the original was destroyed in WWII, rebuilt in the 1990s to the original 1344 facade. The interior can be visited (EUR 7) and the exterior is one of the most photographed facades in Riga.
The St. Peter’s Church tower (EUR 9 elevator) offers the best panoramic view of the Old Town’s rooftops, the Daugava River, and the Art Nouveau buildings in the surrounding city.
Riga Central Market
Five enormous hangars built for German Zeppelin airships in World War I were converted into Riga’s central market in 1930 — and they remain fully operational today, covering an area of 72,000 square metres and serving as the largest market in the Baltics.
Each hangar specialises: dairy and meat, vegetables and fruit, fish (the essential stop — smoked eel from Lake Lubāns, smoked lamprey from the Daugava, Baltic herring and sprats), and general goods. The fish pavilion is the most extraordinary — the smell, the scale, the variety of Baltic fish preparations, the stall holders selling smoked eels by weight — it is an authentic market experience in a setting that is architecturally extraordinary. Buy smoked fish and rye bread for a riverside lunch. Everything is cheap.
The Architecture of Ambition
Standing in front of a building on Elizabetes iela designed by Mikhail Eisenstein (father of the film director Sergei), I counted five different grotesque faces in the stonework, two sphinxes, floral spirals across the entire facade, and a rooftop topped by a female figure in Art Nouveau stone. This building was built as a merchant's apartment block in 1903. The ambition it represents is extraordinary.
Museum of the Occupation of Latvia
The Museum of the Occupation (Latvijas Okupācijas muzejs, Rātslaukums 1, free admission) covers the Soviet occupation of 1940-1941, the Nazi occupation of 1941-1944, and the Soviet re-occupation from 1944 to 1991. Latvia lost a third of its pre-war population to deportations, executions, and emigration over this period — 90,000 Jews murdered, tens of thousands deported to Siberia. The museum handles this history with clarity and without sensationalism. It is essential context for understanding contemporary Latvia and the Baltic states’ relationship with Russia. Allow 90 minutes.
Day Trip: Jūrmala
The resort strip of Jūrmala stretches for 33 kilometres along the Gulf of Riga, 25km west of the city centre. The suburban train from Riga station takes 30-35 minutes (€1.50 each way; pay the €2 entry fee to Jūrmala municipality on the train). The main beach town (Majori) has a white sand beach, a pedestrian street lined with cafes and restaurants, and a neighbourhood of extraordinary Art Nouveau and National Romantic wooden villas from the early 20th century. The beach itself is clean and reasonably uncrowded outside peak summer weekends. The Gulf of Riga water temperature reaches 20-22°C in July and August.
- Getting There: Bus 22 from Riga Airport to the Old Town takes 30 minutes and costs about €2 — buy a Riga card or pay on the bus with contactless. Taxis cost €12-15. Air Baltic has excellent connections from across Europe; Ryanair and Wizz Air add cheap options.
- Best Time: May and June for long days (light until 10:30pm near midsummer), the outdoor market at full energy, and Jūrmala beach just beginning its season. September is excellent with summer temperatures and much thinner crowds. Winter (November-February) is dark and cold but the Christmas market is superb.
- Money: Latvia uses the euro. Beer at a local bar costs €2.50-3.50. Restaurant mains €10-18. The Central Market is extraordinary value — a lunch of smoked fish, rye bread, and Latvian cheese costs €4-6.
- Don't Miss: The Latvian Ethnographic Open-Air Museum (Brīvdabas muzejs, 9km northeast of the centre, open daily May-October) — 118 authentic Latvian buildings transplanted from across the country, including farmsteads, windmills, and fishing villages. Entry €5. Take bus 1 from the city centre.
- Avoid: Livu Square in the Old Town on Friday and Saturday nights — it becomes a stag-party zone. The adjacent bar streets are fine; the square itself gets very rowdy. For a proper Latvian evening, head to the restaurants of Kalku iela or the bars of Miera iela in the Quiet Centre.
- Local Phrase: "Paldies!" (PAL-dyees) — Thank you in Latvian. Latvian is a Baltic language (related to Lithuanian, distantly to Sanskrit) unlike anything most European visitors have encountered before. Any attempt to use it is received with genuine warmth.
Where Should You Eat in Riga?
Latvian cuisine is rooted in Baltic and Germanic traditions — rye bread (rupjmaize) is served with almost every meal, smoked fish is central to the cuisine, and hearty pork, potato, and cabbage dishes dominated traditional home cooking. The new generation of Latvian restaurants has transformed this base into something genuinely exciting.
Baltic Table
Smoked lamprey from the Central Market fish stall — a whole fish, oily and intensely flavoured, eaten with Latvian rye bread and a glass of cold Latvian lager at a plastic table under the Zeppelin hangar roof. Total cost: €5. I have eaten in Michelin-starred restaurants in Riga that cost twenty times this. The lamprey was better.
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Restaurant Folkklubs Ala Pagrabs (Peldu iela 19, Old Town) — A vast, atmospheric Latvian restaurant in a medieval cellar, with live folk music, hearty Latvian food, and an extraordinary selection of Latvian craft beers. Mains EUR 10-18. Crowded and excellent.
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Garage (Dzirnavu iela 84, Quiet Centre) — The most interesting new-wave Latvian restaurant in the city, with creative cooking using local and foraged ingredients. The tasting menu (€40-50) is exceptional value. Reserve ahead.
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Lido Atpūtas Centrs (Krasta iela 76, Mežaparks) — A vast self-service restaurant serving Latvian home cooking to enormous queues of locals. Roast pork, pickled cabbage, rye bread, desserts. Full meal under €7. Extremely authentic.
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Ala (Kalku iela 1, Old Town) — Latvian craft beer pub with an excellent selection of local breweries (Labietis, Valmiermuiža, Brenguļu) alongside traditional food. Beer from €2.50.
Where Should You Stay in Riga?
Your Riga Base
Stay in the Old Town for medieval atmosphere and walking distance to the market and Art Nouveau district. Stay in the Quiet Centre (Klusais centrs), the residential neighbourhood of Art Nouveau buildings, for a more local feel at lower prices. Both are within 15 minutes' walk of each other.
Riga has good accommodation across all budgets. Old Town hotels are more expensive and noisier on weekend nights; the Quiet Centre and New Town are quieter and often better value.
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Budget: Cinnamon Sally Backpacker Hostel (Merķeļa iela 1, near the station) — Consistently excellent reviews, clean rooms, social atmosphere. Dorm beds from EUR 13-18.
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Mid-Range: Hotel Bergs (Elizabetes iela 83/85, Quiet Centre) — Boutique hotel in the heart of the Art Nouveau district, with beautiful rooms and an excellent restaurant. Doubles from EUR 100-150.
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Luxury: Grand Poet Hotel by Semarah (Raiņa bulvāris 5, Old Town) — The finest hotel in Riga, in a 19th-century building facing the Canal Park. Doubles from EUR 160-250 depending on season.
When Is the Best Time to Visit Riga?
May and June offer the most extraordinary daylight — the Baltic summer midsummer near-midnight twilight is a genuine phenomenon, with the sky never fully darkening. The city is at its most alive and the market overflows with spring produce.
September provides warm days with thinner crowds and the Central Market’s autumn abundance — mushrooms, berries, root vegetables from the Latvian countryside.
December brings one of Eastern Europe’s finest Christmas markets to Doma laukums, in the square where the first Christmas tree is said to have been displayed in 1510.
Final Thoughts
Riga rewards the visitor who comes for the architecture and stays for everything else. The Art Nouveau facades will stop you in your tracks. The Central Market will rearrange your understanding of what a food market can be. The occupation museum will make the history of the 20th century feel very close and very real. And the evening in a Latvian restaurant with a plate of smoked eel, a glass of dark beer, and folk music playing somewhere in the back — that is the part of Riga that makes you grateful for going off the most-visited-cities list.