Riga Cathedral
The Baltic region's largest medieval church, with a Romanesque cloister and a celebrated Walcker organ.
Bishop Albert laid the foundation stone of Riga Cathedral in 1211, and the church grew through the thirteenth century into the largest medieval place of worship in the Baltic region. Romanesque, early Gothic, Baroque and Art Nouveau work is visible in a single building: brick nave arcades and a vaulted cloister on the south side survive from the medieval monastery, while the octagonal tower carries a copper-covered Baroque helm added in the eighteenth century after earlier spires were lost. Until 1561 it was the principal bishop's church of Livonia.
The cathedral is the seat of the Archbishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia and remains a working parish church, but it is also one of Riga's main concert venues. The organ built by E. F. Walcker of Ludwigsburg in 1882–83 was briefly the largest in the world and still has more than 6,700 pipes; its case incorporates carving from the earlier instrument rebuilt by Heinrich Andreas Contius in the 1770s. Short midday recitals and longer evening concerts run through the year.
Highlights
- Walcker organ of 1883 with over 6,700 pipes
- Thirteenth-century cloister, among the best preserved in the Baltics
- Short Concerto Piccolo organ recitals most days at midday
- Bookable tours of the tower and the organ balcony
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