RIGA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16032, 25 September 1915, Page 5 (Supplement)

RIGA.

A GREAT RUSSIAN SEAPORT. " jT BO j£ the cables of the last few weeks it is evident that the Germans have been "waking"» big effort to capture Riga. Ger-'-,,3' newspapers have already measured the distance between Petrograd and Riga, and it may be assumed that Riga is intended to be used as a base for a German ! pensive aimed at Petrograd. More reassuring cables in regard to the Russian position have been received during the last few days, and it now appears that ' Uiga is safe, at least for the present. ; | Outside the commercial world it would perhaps not be very wide of the mark jo say that Riga is known to most people! chiefly through a quatrain immortalising ' the fate of a young lady and a tiger. So! much for fiction fame. Riga is the most j interesting town of Northern Europe. | ■ Founded in 1210 by Bishop Albert, its' "history up to its conquest by the Rus-1 ' sians in 1710, is. with the exception of j . about 50 years at the beginning of the' sixteenth centaury, one of strife from with-1 . in and of wars from without. But despite i a history of storm and stress, it exists to-! ; ;V day full of strength and vigour, a grand ! ;;V monument of the spirit and fulness and I . wealth of mediaeval life in -which its his-' *- tory and commerce have been moulded and I p developed side by side, each enriching rr ; the other, and each with its own story to I y : tell, for each has fought a good fight, j .There is old German "Riga with its' churches, mediaeval buildings, store-1' ;;> houses, and granaries rising high above' . -the narrow, kidney-paved streets over! g; which the ruthless Jewish jehu rattles! iy his dilapidated droshky. Here everything i tells of past struggles, political and re-1 I ligious, in the midst of commercial pros- I perity. But beyond the old town stretches j y*new! Riga, with beautiful parks and gar-j • dens, ~broad, shady boulevards, modern public and private buildings, and fine suburbs, bespeaking progress and civilisation on modern lines. Life throbs in the | old city, but it is no longer that life of | warfare and enmity, of feuds and quarrels, y which, with the exception of about 50 g; years at the beginning of the sixteenth X century, disturbed the Province of Livonia ,y v for 500 years, and in which the old | burgher town of Riga played the chief i; : and unhappiest part. No, to-day it is ■' the life of the harbour, with its incoming and outgoing argosies, the life of the mart W. that is the principal factor making for g.the prosperity of this interesting and imS: portant .port. Steaming slowly up the .. Dura, its quay flanked by warehouses and '. lines of rail, one comes face to face with present-day commercial activity. And as one goes from the busy quay into the ; old town, walking leisurely about, gazing up at the many-storeyed, small-windowed .| buildings which stand as everlasting memorials connecting past with present - merchant life, one realises that the con- ?: tinuity of Baltic trade and commerce has &; remained unbroken from the middle of

S the twelfth century, when German mer- : chants appeared at the month of the | Diina, and, by barter, established business S?-relations with the natives. £• j If the history of business life could be :j made romantic. Riga offers plenty of r material, but all that this sketch is conj£ cerned with is a bird's-eye view of a fine H city.

~ Standing on the Schneckenberg, a cul- ' tivated eminence forming a landmark between the town and the suburbs of Riga, s one involuntarily exclaims at the panorama which nature presents. Be it in -the spring of the year, when trees and shrubs are bursting into leaf, and beauti- :;,- ful flower-beds adorn the well-kept pro- i : menades on either side "> of a waterway—] ? . prosaically - called the town canalor, in | the autumn, ' when myriad-coloured foliage J greets the eye, or in winter, when the 'hoar frost-bespangled landscape scintillates in the sunshine, the scene cannot fail to arrest. Villas, boulevards, spacious gardens, parks, churches (conspicuous among which are the golden dome of the Russian Cathedral and the high spire of St. Peter's Church), and substantial public buildings tell of wealth gotten by industry. Among old buildings, the most uniquely interesting is "The House of the Black Heads" (" Schwarzhaupterhaus"), a club of unmarried merchants, founded in 1330, for safeguarding the interests of the, town, and so called from the negro martyr, Saint Maurice, whom the bachelors "took as ' their patron saint. The black head is very visible everywhere, each chair being therewith decorated. But an object in the dining-hall that is likely to attract the attention of an Englishwoman is an •;• eighteenth century dance programme hanging on the wall, .and on.which Eng- ■ lish dances were indulged for two hours. >, What these were is not specified by V name, but the rules appended state that only 20 couples would be allowed in a

i row. . , A striking contrast in architecture •is .y the Russian Cathedral. Built in 1877-84,■ |i in Russian Byzantian style, it has, a gorgeous interior and imposing exterior. \'; Enter this sanctuary on a quiet summer evening, when the rays of the sun are slanting across the Iconostasis, listen to : the Gregorian chanting, see a father lift his little boy up to kiss the Bible held by'the priest, take in the devout expres-s-i sion on the faces of men and women, note "_ their low genuflexions go to the wonderful) Easter service in this cathedral, and t something may be understood of the deeply religious spirit of the Russian people. The Anglican Church on the quay is v very .flourishing; so is the happy English s community. Two modern buildings, ... bearing _ witness to Riga's commercial Prosperity as a member of the Hanseatic League, are the Guilds, the Great Guild _ and the Little Guild. Architecture and -decorations are descriptive of both the £~ trade and the religious spirit, so largely associated with the Guilds of the Middle Ages. The frieze running round the lower | hall of the Great Guild is" decorated with <?" the arms of 46 Hansa towns, among {' which are those celebrated Steel- " • yard of London. Riga is extremely well off for scholastic I . buildings, and the education that goes on I within them. A volume might be written a on them. They include the Polytechnic, |& gymnasiums, Government and municipal I' . schools for girls and boys, and private I schools under Government inspection. The y Nicolai Stadt High School for Girls has IB l staff of 40 teachers for ,500 pupils. v Then there is a very fine commercial I school—the Borse Schiile, in which there g£ are about 500 pupils. There are also several endowed institutions for the benefit of women, chiefly for those belonging . - to the merchant class. There are three municipal theatres . German, Russian, and Lettish. It goes without saying that picture palaces also jt, nourish. Music in summer or winter is ;; always to the fore .and the very best can be heard. In the summer months the public gardens are a delight. There are the beautiful Imperial Gardens, where, in 1910, the Tsar unveiled an equestrian I statue to Peter the Great. There was no | small commotion in Riga on this occasion, j- for, with the exception of a visit by Alexia ander 11. in 1867. no Tsar had entered \ Riga since 1721, when the great Peter planted an elm tree in these gardens.