Buildings in Riga

Dear followers,

This is our last stop of the trip and so it will be my last post on this blog. I really did not know anything about this city so I searched for it on the internet. On Wikipedia I found some important buildings that we must have visited before leaving the city.

In this blog I am going to talk about some different popular buildings in Riga. One of the oddest shaped buildings is the Riga radio and TV tower.  It is the tallest structure in the Baltic countries and the second tallest in the European Union. It was built between 1979 and 1986 by USSR. Its highest point reaches 368.5 m, which makes it the third tallest tower in Europe (after the Ostankino Tower at 540 metres) and the Kiev TV Tower at 385 metres and the 14th tallest tower in the world.

The second building on our list was Latvian Academy of Sciences. The Academy of Science the official science academy of Latvia and is an association of the country's foremost scientists. The academy was founded as the Latvian SSR Academy of Sciences.

Riga Arena was the third building to visit. Arena Riga is an indoor arena in Riga, Latvia. It is primarily used for ice hockey, basketball and concerts. Riga Arena holds a maximum of 14 500 people and was completed in 2006. It was built to be used as one of the venues for the 2006 IIHF World Championship, the other being Skonto Arena. It has been home to the Kontinental Hockey League club Dinamo Riga since 2008. During the years the Arena has also hosted many well-known artists from all over the world.

What we also must not forget is that Riga is one of the largest centres of Art Nouveau, with more than a third of the buildings of its Central District built in the style. The main street for Riga’s Art Nouveau district is Elizabetes, which intersects Brivibas Boulevard. In addition to Elizabetes Street, Alberta and Strelnieku Streets also feature impressive examples of the style. In total, there are over 800 Art Nouveau buildings in Riga.

I hope you learned a bit more about the cities we have visited on our blogs and enjoyed reading them.

Shari

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riga

http://www.emporis.com/city/riga-latvia

http://www.ranker.com/review/riga-radio-and-tv-tower/1910268