Riga Art Nouveau Free Tour - Autumn / Winter 2022
Updated: Oct 3, 2022
Hey folks! Starting from the 1st October through to the end of March 2023 the Art Nouveau free tour will be running on Saturdays at 12:00 - Not the usual 15:00 that we run the rest of the year!
Book a place on an Art Nouveau Free Tour of Riga Here!
Why the change in schedule for the free walking tour of Riga's Arty Nouveau quarter you ask? Daylight hours is the pure and simple reason we need to shift the time back to midday so we can catch the hours of daylight that we have on offer! You can be sure that in winter the grey post 15:00 is not a time to walk around looking at beautiful buildings, for they will be hidden in the dill, dark shadows of Riga in the shorter days.
The Art nouveau free tour of Riga is one of the best ways to get familiar with the Riga of the early 1900's. Just at the dawn of the modern era and at the end of the Russian Empire. You will get the chance to wander the streets and hear about what was happening in this pivotal period in Latvia and Riga's history. Get closer to the inhabitants of Riga during that time, formed by a vast mix of ethnic groups, languages, religions and cultures. The Riga of the foregone era is really a World away from the city today.
Behind all of this is the architects of the time, the movers and shakers, the property developers, the labourers, scaffolders, city planners, bankers, Mayors and society that drove one of Europe's fastest and grandest expansions of all time. Riga was at her peak during this period but it also the peak and ultimate collapse of an Empire.
Art meets history on this free walking tour of Riga. A must for anyone in love with Art Nouveau and for the city explorer who wants to escape the touristic Old town with its lack of actual inhabitants. Here in the quiet centre we come in to contact with the money that once was and the money that is still present on the higher end of the scale in the society of Riga today.
Riga is home to one of the Worlds largest collections of Art Nouveau buildings. There are many various styles, many periods and many back stories that carry the styles along with the current affairs of the day. From an opulent pre 1905 period, to the post uprisings across the Russian empire in 1905 that led to more down to earth styles such as the National romantic movement.