Latvia Guide
Rīga
Doma laukums
Address: At the core of the Old Town, just off Kaļķu iela to the north
Opening time: Tues 11am–6pm, Wed– Fri 1–6pm, Sat 10am–2pm
Price: 1.50Ls
Doma laukums (Cathedral Square) is dominated by the red-brick bulk of Rīga's Romanesque Cathedral (Rīgas dome). The biggest cathedral in the Baltics, it was begun in 1211 by Albert von Buxhoeveden, the warrior-priest who founded Rīga and became its first bishop. Although much tinkered with by his successors, it remains an exuberant expression of medieval ecclesiastical power, bowling successive generations of visitors over with its combination of sheer size and decorative finesse – particularly fine are the intricate brickwork chevrons and zigzag patterns that cover the outer walls. Post-medieval add-ons have bestowed a degree of eccentric grandeur on the building – especially the enormous Renaissance gable at its eastern end and the bulbous Baroque belfry rising improbably from the roof.
In true Lutheran style, the interior is relatively austere, its most eye-catching features being a florid pulpit from 1641, bristling with statues of saints and trumpet-wielding angels, and a magnificent nineteenth-century organ with 6768 pipes – said to be the fourth largest in the world (and the largest in the world when it was first installed in 1884); its stentorian tones can be heard at weekly organ recitals – pick up a schedule at the cathedral entrance or at the tourist office. The pillars of the nave are decorated with carved coats of arms, while its walls are lined with German memorial slabs, mostly dating from the period after the Reformation. A much older gravestone is that belonging to Meinhard, Bishop of Uexküll, occupying a pinnacle-capped niche on the left-hand side of the choir. Meinhard was the first German ecclesiastic to make his way to Latvia in an attempt to convert the local heathens, building the region's first church southeast of Rīga in 1188, and paving the way for Albert von Buxhoeveden's crusading hordes.
The remaining three sides of the Doma laukums are occupied by an odd collection of buildings from various eras, grandest of which is the Latvian Stock Exchange (Latvijas birža), on the corner with Pils iela, a stately mid-nineteenth-century structure decked out in hues of maroon and green and decorated with reliefs of Greco-Roman demigods serving as allegories of various industries and trades.