FREE Walking Tour Riga Art Nouveau

Riga Art Nouveau Walking Tour is a focused tour from Rigatrips with close attention on main treasure of Riga – the beauty you see as you walk on streets but often do not notice, as you need to lift up your head to observe it fully. Come to our tour with knowledgabe and entertaing tour guide, who will point out your eyes to exciting details you would otherwise miss.

Tour starts at Laima clock – Rigatrips meeting point, from where we will walk you to - „silent centre” of Riga, that has become unofficial centre of art nouveau architecture, as it has widest compilation of most decorative art nouveau buildings. Alberta Street, one of the TOP 3 must see in Riga as suggested by Latvia travel tourist information site - will be our main target of the tour.

We will pass every building on the street and learn all the details of most of the houses, as well as find out about life in Riga around the change of centuries in the years 1900 – 1914, just before World War I.

Art Nouveau area also houses a museum of art nouveau that has a wide selection of interior decor and is a pleasant way to walk through as offers fully furnished and equipped apartments from 100 years ago showing how rich inhabitants of Riga then were leading their lifestyle. We will show you where the museum is located and also bring you to the passway of the house to show you interior decorations – to expand your experience with art nouveau architecture style.

Knowledgable local tour guides, members of the association of professional tour guides will point at important details of houses, tell you the meaning of symbols used on the house by architects as well as share our pride of the country – local architect names and their life stories.

More on Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau was an artistic movement that peaked in popularity in Europe between 1890 and 1905 and was practiced in the fields of art, architecture, and applied art. It is a French term meaning "new art" and is characterized by organic and plant motifs as well as other highly stylized forms. The organic forms often took the form of sudden violent curves which were often referenced by the term whiplash. Its short success was a reaction against late 19th century academic art and was replaced by the development of 20th-century modernist styles.

Architecture particularly shows this synthesis of ornamental structure; a liberal combination of materials—ironwork, glass, ceramic, and brickwork—was employed, for example, in the creation of unified interiors in which columns and beams became thick vines with spreading tendrils and windows became both openings for light and air and membranous outgrowths of the organic whole. This approach was directly opposed to the traditional architectural values of reason and clarity of structure. Art Nouveau buildings were erected in cities throughout Europe; increasingly urban populations needed new places to live, and changing infrastructure meant many opportunities for new architecture.

The Art Nouveau architecture in Riga makes up roughly one-third of all the buildings in the center of Riga, making the Latvia capital the city with the highest concentration of Art Nouveau architecture anywhere in the world. Built during a period of rapid economic growth, most of Riga's Art Nouveau buildings date from between 1904 and 1914.