RIGA, LATVIA

     RIGA - one of the most beautiful and ancient cities in Europe, the capital of the Republik of Latvia.
     Riga is located in the crossroads between the West and the East. It had lived through the German, Swedish, Polish and Russian times. It has always preserved its own unique features and taken the best out of every epoch and culture in the long run of the centuries.
     With obvious reason Riga is regarded as the Metropolis of Art Nouveau because nowhere else in the world one can find find such a coexistence of neo-romanticism, rationalism and gothic examples in architecture. Those buildings have taken up more that a third of the City center.
     European specialists have also highly appreciated Riga`s wooden houses, their unrepeatable place in the world cultural heritage context.
     People, of course, are one of the City`s major values. They will always kindly meet you in our native town, showing the best of the culture and entertainment.
     If you are looking for business in Eastern Europe, Riga is the right place.
     When arriving in Riga you will also be able to feel its creative spirit, and you will desire to return as anybody who has ever visiting this wounderful City.

     Riga is often called the entertainment Mecca of the Baltics with its mushrooming clubs, casinos and discos. It has always been famous for its bohemian moods since the Soviet times and now it is only becoming more cosmopolitan and sophisticated. Each taste or mood can be satisfated with an appropriate club or bar. The night out often starts at the favourite meeting point of Rigans since the 30ies - the Laima clock. It continues in one of the Old Town bars - Irish and British pubs being very popular and always crowded. You can choose from mega-discos like club "Essential" and stylish house club "Nautilus" to more underground clubs like "Metro" or "Pulkviedim Neviens Neraksta". Then there is also something for live music lovers - Latvian rock or international jazz and blues ("Cita Opera", "Cetri Balti Krekli", "Hamlets", etc.).
     The image would not be compelete without mentioning the hot adult entertainment and gambling options - numerous exciting erotic shows and casinos will keep your eyes wide open all the night long. Most of the venues concentrate in the Old Town, with the exception of the bigger clubs. Keep in mind that as in all cities, safety precautions are adviser when out late at night.

OLD TOWN OF RIGA

     In 1997 the historical center of Riga – Old City – was included in the list of the world cultural heritage of UNESCO. Because of this cultural-historical heritage, unique urban environment, prospects for development Riga draws numerous tourists.
     Many museums and historical and architectural monuments, brightest of which are the Old City, Dome Cathedral, Riga Castle, House of Blackheads, St. Peter Church, Jakob`s Barracks, "Three Brother", Great and Small Guilds, Cat`s House, Pulvera (Gunpowder) they always drew to themselves close attention of the long-awaited guests of city. Also their one pride of Riga is the renovated building of the National Opera, in which works one of the operatic and ballet companies best in the Baltic States.
     Riga`s historical center includes a variety of architectural styles from the Romanesque to the post-modern. Just beyong this old district is a network of boulevards with a great number of public and privat buildings that are must to see. Here Art Nouveau and Eclectism (National Romanticism) dominate. And side by side with these styles there still are 19th century wooden houses that today have enormous architectural value.
     The first Art Nouveau buildings were built in 1899 and are characterized by ecletic decorativevexperiments, which are most dramatically evident in a row of buildings on Albert Street (1903-1906). Whimsical towers, turrets, gargoyles, neo-classical statuary, garlands, wreths and sphinxes abound.One of the most striking examples of this style is one of Michael Eisenstein`s buildings, now the home of the Riga Law School. Other striking examples of his work are found on the neighbouring Strelnieku un Elizabetes steets. Another building that draws our attention is at 12 Albertt Street, the work of Konstantins Pekšens, also a mojor contributor to the Art Nouveau and National Romantic style in Riga.
     More than one-third of the buildings in this area are in the Art Nouveau or Ecletic style.They appear in a concentration, number and variety that is rivaled perhaps only by Prague and can be appreciated only by looking upwards to take in the diverse wonders of unfettered flights of imagination.