Latvian Ethnographic Open-Air Museum
Pine forest park by Lake Jugla with farmsteads, churches and windmills from across Latvia
The Latvian Ethnographic Open-Air Museum was established in 1924 and occupies about 87 hectares of pine forest on the shore of Lake Jugla, on the north-eastern edge of Riga. More than a hundred buildings have been moved here from the four historical regions of Latvia: Kurzeme, Vidzeme, Zemgale and Latgale. They include farmsteads, fishermen's huts, windmills, a Latgalian wooden church, a Vidzeme tavern and craft workshops, arranged so that each region forms a distinct group along the forest paths.
Interiors are furnished with household goods, tools and textiles from the seventeenth to the twentieth century, and craftspeople give demonstrations of weaving, pottery, blacksmithing and woodwork in season. The museum keeps the Latvian folk calendar with gatherings at Easter, Midsummer, Michaelmas and Martinmas, and the Great Latvian Crafts Fair held in early June is among the largest markets of its kind in the Baltic states. Two rural branch exhibitions, at Veveri and Vitolnieki, are run from the main site.
Highlights
- Over a hundred relocated buildings from Latvia's four historic regions
- Wooden Latgalian church and working windmills in the pine woods
- Craft demonstrations in furnished farmstead interiors
- Folk calendar festivals and the June crafts fair
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