Latvia’s rich Art Nouveau heritage was shaped by European trends, influenced by local folk aesthetics, and popularized under Latvia’s National Awakening, a movement that first sought to define what it meant to be proudly Latvian. Art Nouveau flourished in Latvia for less than two decades. It rose with the economic prosperity and social mobility at […]

The Pauls Stradiņš Museum of the History of Medicine, located in Riga, Latvia, is one of the world’s largest museums devoted to healthcare and medicine. It covers the history of medicine from ancient times to the modern, with a special focus on healthcare in Latvia. The museum showcases the historical progression of medical knowledge, instruments, […]

The Latvian National Museum of Art is one of Riga’s oldest and best known art museums. Its permanent collections focus specifically on Latvia’s own national artists and on telling the story of the development of art in Latvia. It also rotates temporary exhibitions that can introduce you to even more striking and more recent Latvian […]

Located in the heart of Old Riga, the Mikhail Chekhov Riga Russian Theater has played a central and outsized role in the history of Russian language arts and culture in Latvia. To this day, about 25% of Latvia’s population is native Russian speaking. This theater, which, in 2023, marks 140 years since its founding, remains […]

Riga’s museums offer a fascinating look at Latvia’s culture, history, and especially architecture and transport infrastructure. From the Museum of the History of Riga and Navigation, housed in the iconic Riga Dom, to the Latvian National Museum of Art, showcasing the finest works of Latvian artists, and the Art Nouveau Museum, exhibiting the city’s famous […]

Located on the banks of its namesake pond in the scenic town of Druskininkai, approximately fifty miles from Lithuania’s capital, Vilnius, Grutas Park has become something of a joke to both Lithuanians and foreigners. Since the park’s opening on April 1st, 2001, visitors have had the opportunity to revisit the era of the Soviet Union […]