Riga

RIGA, a seaport of Latvia, of which it is the capital, in 57° 3' N., 24° I' E. Pop. (i930) 377,917. It is situated at the south ern extremity of the Gulf of Riga, 8 m. above the mouth of the western Dwina, which is connected by means of inland canals with the basins of the Dnieper and Volga. The Gulf of Riga is ioo m. long and 6o m. wide, with shallow waters of slight salinity and a greatest depth of 22 fathoms. It is frozen for an average of 127 days in the year. The sea entrance has a depth of 241 ft. which is being dredged to 26 ft. The channel up to the town is 24 ft. deep and the depth at the quays varies from 18 to 26 ft. There are vast warehouses and a large grain elevator. The port has two electric cranes (10 tons and 25 tons), a 25 ton floating crane and there are on order (1928) for the town 8 electrical portable cranes and one 130 ton crane as there is a growing transit trade with Sotdet Russia. The Riga Exchange Committee's slip dock at Bolderaja is capable of taking ships up to i,000 tons. Large ships unload at Ust-Dvinsk (formerly Dunamiinde). The imports are herrings, foodstuffs, clothing, sugar, tobacco, industrial and agri cultural machinery, mechanical tools, railway equipment, coal, coke and fertilisers, and the exports flax, timber, wooden goods, dairy produce, meat, pork and ham. The town manufactures paper, wood-pulp, cellulose, matches, veneered goods, paints and varnish, textiles, especially cotton and linen goods, boots and shoes, rubber goods, cement, vegetable oils, tobacco and alcoholic drinks. Manufactures were seriously hampered by the destruction of factories and plant during the World War, when Riga was occupied by German troops from 1917 to 1919. Trade in 1926 was about io% of that in 1913.

Riga consists of four parts—the old town and suburbs on the right bank of the Dwina (Latvian, Daugava), and the Mitau suburb on the left bank, the two sides being connected by a floating bridge, which is removed in winter, and by a viaduct, 82o ft. long. The old town still preserves its Hanseatic features—high storehouses, with spacious granaries and cellars, flanking the nar row, winding streets. The only open spaces are the market-place and two other squares. The suburbs, with their broad and quiet boulevards on the site of the fortifications, are steadily growing.

Few antiquities of the mediaeval town remain. The oldest church, the Dom (St. Mary's), founded in 1215, was burned in 1547, and the present building dates from the second half of the i6th century, but has been thoroughly restored since 1883. Its organ, dating from 1883, is one of the largest in the world. St.

Peter's church, with a beautiful tower 412 ft. high, was erected in 1406-9. The castle was built in 1494-1515 by the master of the Knights of the Sword, Walter von Plettenberg, a spacious build ing often rebuilt. The "House of the Black Heads," a corporation, or club, of foreign merchants, was founded in 1330, and subse quently became the meeting-place of the wealthier youth.

The Livlandische Ritterhaus, the former place of meeting of the Livonian nobility, still stands. Near the city are extensive summer bathing beaches, with mile after mile of little wooden chalets nestling among pine trees. The Riga Polytechnic Insti tute became a university in 1919, Dorpat (Tartu) university, which previously served all the Russian Baltic provinces, having become Estonian property.

History.

Riga was founded in 1158, as a storehouse at the mouth of the river, by a few Bremen merchants. About 1190 the Augustinian monk Meinhard erected a monastery there, and in 1199-1201 Bishop Albert I. of Livonia obtained from Pope Innocent III. permission for German merchants to land at the new settlement, and chose it for his seat, exercising his power over the neighbouring district in connexion with the Teutonic Knights. As early as the first half of the 13th century the young city ob tained the right of electing its own magistracy, and enlarged the walls erected during Albert I.'s time. It joined the Hanseatic League, and from 1253 refused to recognize the rights of the bishop and the knights. In 1420 it fell once more under the rule of the bishop, who maintained his authority until 1566, when it was abolished in consequence of the Reformation. Sigismund II., king of Poland, took Riga in 1547, and in 1558 the Russians burned its suburbs and many ships in the river. In 1561 Gotthard Ketteler publicly abdicated his mastership of the order of the Teutonic Knights, and Riga, together with southern Livonia, became a Polish possession. After some unsuccessful attempts to reintro duce Roman Catholicism, Stephen Bathory, king of Poland, recog nized the religious freedom of the Protestant population. Through out the 17th century Riga was a bone of contention between Sweden, Poland and Russia. In 1621 Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden, took it from Poland, and held it against the Poles and the Russians, who besieged it in 1656. During the Northern War between Sweden and Russia, it was courageously defended (170o), but after the battle of Poltava it succumbed, and was finally taken in July 1710 by the Russians.