Retirement 2.0: Riga Art Nouveau Architecture I: Old Riga

Our idea of going to the Baltics began when I read somewhere that Riga has more Art Nouveau buildings than any other city in the world. Wow. I was dubious of that claim (Budapest has well over a thousand Art Nouveau buildings--and that's not counting the even larger collection of Historicist and Eclectic buildings constructed between 1867 and 1900). I am still dubious, though I was surprised at how many buildings we saw that were labeled Art Nouveau in the guidebooks. However, I am not sure I would label all the buildings included in the guidebooks as Art Nouveau. There are definitional issues surrounding the term Art Nouveau, about which people more expert than me debate. However, I am going to hold back my thoughts about this until I have shown you some of what we saw in Riga. This is how I learned to love Hungarian Secession--proceeding inductively: looking first then trying to sort out my observations.

Riga--like many cities, including Budapest--was enlarged and modernized in the nineteenth century. Radiating out of Riga's quite large Old Town, are a number of long streets that serve as spikes running through a series of semi-circular boulevards. And it is here, in these areas opened up in the nineteenth century, that most of the Art Nouveau buildings appear. The helpful tourist office offers four Art Nouveau "trails," three of which wind through the new boulevards. But Art Nouveau appeared first in the Old Town And it's here that I will begin. In this blogpost, I want to show you some of the earliest of Riga's Art Nouveau--partly because this is what I love best, and partly because I think we see here the "purest" version of Art Nouveau.

Note: My information about these buildings comes from Riga: Art Nouveau Metropolis by Janis Krastins, 1998.

First up is Sichman's apartment house with shops at Teatra Iela (street) 9. It was built in 1903; architects H. Scheel and F. Scheffel. Krastins describes this building as "Eclectically Art Nouveau." You can see the definitional complications.

Most obviously "Eclectic" is the "headache men" and the vaguely Roman figures at the top.

Maybe also Eclectic are the atlases at the top, though the sculpture is very similar to one Odon Lechner puts on the top of the Geological Institute.

However, there are also many organic images, including the flowers in the stained glass, the sunburst motif, and vegetal organicism of the wrought iron balcony.

This is one I managed to get into and saw many lovely Art Nouveau elements in the interior.

Another beautiful early Art Nouveau building is Dettman's trade and apartment house, Skunu Iela 10/12, built in 1902, also by H. Scheel and F. Scheffel.

This one, though, seems much more "purely" Art Nouveau. Kranis says that "the façade acquired its luxurious ornamentally decorative Art Nouveau appearance through modifications during the course of construction." Almost like the façade is a canvas which the architects are painting.

The dominant image of the façade is the row of tree of life ornaments, but there are many other gorgeous Art Nouveau details.

One of my favorites was Stamm's apartment house with shops at Smilsu Iela 2, dating from 1902. The architect was K. Peksens. In this case, the Art Nouveau ornaments were added to an existing building. "The house is a reconstruction and extension of an old building. A precise architectural idea predominated in the façade which is lavishly adorned with a variety of Art Nouveau reliefs." Again, the ornamental finished product was different from the plans, growing--as it were--on the building itself.

Here is the building entire.

I imagine the brick is from the original building and the (presumededly) stucco decorations are from the renovation. They are lush and beautiful.

The central grouping contains a man and woman holding onto a tree with a peacock above

The details of the vegetation are extraordinary.

Here is the woman, famous as the most beautiful woman sculpture in Riga. What is also remarkable is how individualized she is: a portrait rather than a decoration. Note also how she holds on the vegetation and the little bird that perches near her.

The interior continues the floral decorations and another Art Nouveau peacock.

The fourth Art Nouveau building for this blogpost is the Choral Synagogue on Peitvas Iela 1. It was built in 1904; the architect was Wilhelm Neumann. It is the only synagogue in Riga to survive the war; the rest were burned down (often with people inside). The Peitvas Synagogue was saved only because it is located in the Old Town adjacent to apartments and a church, and the threat of the fire spreading was too great. During the war, it was used as a warehouse. The reconstruction, financed by the European Union and the Latvian government, was completed in 2009.

It was built in the "Moorish" style and was the first building in Riga to be built in the "Perpendicular Art Nouveau" style in Riga. We will hear more about this style in later blogposts.