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Laipni lūdzam Latvijā

Land

Letland

7 plaatsen · 16 musea

📷 Ainars Brūvelis · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
museumtickets.com-gids · Letland

Welcome to Latvia

Art Nouveau Riga, a baroque palace in the fields, white sand beaches and a nation of singers.

Latvia lies between the Baltic Sea and the lakes of Latgale, with forests over half of the land. Its people kept their language and more than a million folk songs, the dainas, through centuries of foreign rule. Explore the old town and the Art Nouveau streets of Riga, see the palace of Rundāle, walk the farms of the Open-Air Museum and find Mark Rothko in the town where he was born. Plan your museum days on museumtickets.com, then eat grey peas and rye bread and stay up for the midsummer night.

  • 1201Riga is founded
  • 1873the first Latvian Song Festival is held in Riga
  • 1918Latvia declares independence on 18 November
  • 2004Latvia joins the European Union

Latvia through the ages

Merchants, dukes, empires and a chain of hands.

  1. 1201

    Riga is founded

    Bishop Albert founds Riga at the mouth of the Daugava; it soon becomes a great Hanseatic port.

    Te zien in: Museum of the History of Riga and Navigation
  2. 1561

    The Duchy of Courland

    Western Latvia becomes a duchy whose duke Jacob later even holds colonies in Africa and the Caribbean.

    Te zien in: Kuldīga District Museum
  3. 1918

    Independence

    Latvia declares independence on 18 November 1918.

    Te zien in: Latvian War Museum
  4. 1940

    Occupation

    Latvia is occupied by the Soviet Union, then Nazi Germany, then again by the Soviets; tens of thousands are deported.

    Te zien in: Latvian Occupation Museum
  5. 1989

    The Baltic Way

    On 23 August a human chain of about two million people links Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius.

    Te zien in: Latvian Occupation Museum
  6. 1991

    Freedom restored

    Latvia's independence is fully restored in August 1991.

    Te zien in: Latvian War Museum

Women who shaped Latvia

A rebel poet, a storyteller and the first woman president.

Aspazija

Poet and playwright (1865–1943) who wrote about women's freedom and national freedom; with her husband Rainis she is one of Latvia's great writers.

Te zien in: Rainis and Aspazija House
Anna Brigadere

Writer (1861–1933) whose fairy-tale play Sprīdītis, about a small boy looking for happiness, every Latvian child knows.

Te zien in: Anna Brigadere Museum Sprīdīši
Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga

A professor who returned from exile and became Latvia's first woman president in 1999; she studied the dainas, the folk songs.

Artists to look for in Latvia

Snow-melt landscapes, Art Nouveau facades and Mark Rothko.

Vilhelms Purvītis

The master of Latvian landscape, famous for melting snow and spring water in the woods.

Jānis Rozentāls

Painter of Latvian village life and portraits around 1900; his studio home in Riga is a museum.

Mikhail Eisenstein

Architect of the most fantastic Art Nouveau facades on Alberta iela in Riga.

Aleksandra Beļcova

Bold modern painter of the 1920s, one of the founders of Latvian modernism.

Mark Rothko

Born in Daugavpils in 1903, he left as a boy for America and became one of the great painters of the 20th century.

Taste Latvia

Grey peas, rye bread and caraway cheese.

Grey peas with bacon

Large grey peas with fried bacon and onion, a favourite in winter and at Christmas.

Rye bread

Dark, sweet-sour rupjmaize; Latvians even make a dessert from it, bread soup with cream.

Sklandrausis

A small rye tart from Kurzeme, filled with potato and carrot and spiced with cinnamon.

Jāņu siers

A round fresh cheese with caraway seeds, made for the midsummer night.

Smoked fish

Smoked flounder, eel and sprats from the coast, best bought at a seaside smokehouse.

Traditions and festivals through the year

Masks in winter, oak wreaths at midsummer and the Song Festival.

Meteņi – late winter

Shrovetide: sledging down hills, mummers in masks and pancakes to chase winter away.

Jāņi – midsummer

The biggest holiday: wreaths of oak leaves and flowers, bonfires, caraway cheese and singing 'līgo' all night.

Song and Dance Festival – every five years, summer

Tens of thousands of singers and dancers in Riga; UNESCO lists the Baltic song festivals as intangible heritage.

Mārtiņi – November

The start of winter, with mummers going from house to house and a feast of the harvest.

Christmas – December

Riga says the first decorated Christmas tree stood here in 1510, put up by the Blackheads merchants.

Verborgen verhaal

The cat on the roof

Why does a black cat on a Riga roof turn its back?

Lees het verhaalSluiten

On the Cat House near the Great Guild hall, two black cats with arched backs stand on the turrets. The story says a rich Latvian merchant was refused entry to the German merchants' guild, so he turned the cats' tails towards the guild hall. After a long dispute he was admitted, and the cats were turned around. Look up and see which way they face today.

Tips voor kunstliefhebbers

Old town and Art Nouveau

See both: the old town for the Middle Ages, the Quiet Centre around Alberta iela for Art Nouveau.

Trains to the coast

Electric trains run from Riga to the beaches of Jūrmala and to Sigulda.

Rundāle by car

Rundāle Palace is in the countryside south of Riga; a car or tour is easiest.

Closed days

Many museums close one day a week; check before you go.

Letland: plan je bezoek met museumtickets.com

Op museumtickets.com: 16 musea met foto’s, de route en de musea in de buurt. Bewaar je favorieten in het gratis Cultuurpaspoort en betaal, waar het museum dat aanbiedt, je entree vooraf.

Zo kom je er

Op weg naar Letland

Van het vliegveld naar het centrum met het openbaar vervoer, en daarna de treinen en lokale lijnen naar de musea.

Aankomen met het vliegtuig

RIX
Riga InternationalRiga · Rīga · Jūrmala

Reizen door Letland

Lijnen en dienstregelingen veranderen. Kijk voor vertrek op de site van de vervoerder.

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