Rīga Ghetto & Latvian Holocaust Museum
Maskavas Forštate, Avotu Iela & Grīziņkalns
The centrepiece of this arresting and challenging museum is a wooden house with a reconstructed flat, like those that Jews had to move into when the Nazis…
Rīga
Between 1941 and 1944, the Nazis – aided by Latvians – shot more than 35,000 Jews at 55 different sites in this forest. It is one of several killing sites…
Rīga
A lovingly restored courtyard with several vintage wooden buildings is home to creative cafes, shops and restaurants. It's also home to a fantastic…
Maskavas Forštate, Avotu Iela & Grīziņkalns
Haggle for your huckleberries at this vast market, housed in a series of WWI Zeppelin hangars and spilling outdoors as well. It's an essential Rīga…
Latvian Academy of Science Observation Deck
Maskavas Forštate, Avotu Iela & Grīziņkalns
This Stalinesque tower is a not-so-welcome Soviet-era present from Moscow, which has seven towers just like it, only bigger. Construction of what is often…
Rīga
The stars of the collection at this surprisingly well-funded and engrossing museum are cars that once belonged to Soviet luminaries such as Gorky, Stalin,…
Latvian Ethnographic Open-Air Museum
Rīga
If you don’t have time to visit the Latvian countryside, a stop at this open-air museum is a must. Sitting along the shores of Lake Jugla just northeast…
Rīga
The Brothers' Cemetery features a monument by Kārlis Zāle (the designer of the Freedom Monument) dedicated to the Latvian soldiers who died during WWI…
Maskavas Forštate, Avotu Iela & Grīziņkalns
This moving Holocaust Memorial is on the site of a large 1871 synagogue that was burned to the ground on 4 July, 1941 during WWII, with the entire…
Rīga
The shipping yard behind the Central Market is the latest district to benefit from a generous dose of gentrification. These crumbling brick warehouses…
Rīga
Set in a hilly pine forest in Mežaparks, Rīga National Zoo has a modest collection of animals, including an assortment of tropical fauna, as well as the…
Maskavas Forštate, Avotu Iela & Grīziņkalns
It would be a classical-style Lutheran church like many others if it wasn't made entirely of wood, which makes it a unique architectural gem that…