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RIGA |
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RIGA is the undisputed Baltic
metropolis, a major port and
industrial centre of nearly a
million people. The city was founded
by Albert von Buxhoeveden, a German
canon who arrived in 1201 with
twenty shiploads of crusaders to
convert the Latvian tribes to
Christianity. The main Hanseatic
outpost in the region, Riga was run
by German nobles and merchants even
when wider political control passed
to other powers, starting with the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in
the late sixteenth century. After a
subsequent period of Swedish rule
Riga became part of the Russian
Empire in 1710 and during the second
half of the nineteenth century it
developed into a major manufacturing
centre. Badly damaged during World
War I, the city made a comeback
during the first Latvian
independence and remained a major
centre after the country was
swallowed up by the Soviet Union in
1940. Under the Soviets, the influx
of Russian immigrants reduced the
Latvians to a minority in their own
capital - forty-seven percent of the
city's population is now Russian,
with a further sixteen percent made
up of other non-Latvian
nationalities. These days Riga has a
boom-town feel with a small but
conspicuous section of the
population making big bucks from the
get-rich-quick opportunities thrown
up by the switch to full-blown
market economics.
The City
Vecriga or Old Riga , centred on
Cathedral Square (Doma laukums) and
neatly cut in two from east to west
by Kalku iela, forms the nucleus of
Riga and is home to the majority of
the city's historic buildings. To
the east Old Riga is bordered by...
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