Riga, Latvia
Riga (Livonian: Rīgõ) is the capital of Latvia and is home to 627,487 inhabitants. It is the largest city in the three Baltic states and home to one tenth of the combined population. Its historical centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, noted for its Art NouveauJugendstil architecture and 19th century wooden architecture.
About Riga, Latvia in brief
Riga (Livonian: Rīgõ) is the capital of Latvia and is home to 627,487 inhabitants. It is the largest city in the three Baltic states and home to one tenth of the combined population. Riga was founded in 1201 and is a former Hanseatic League member. Its historical centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, noted for its Art NouveauJugendstil architecture and 19th century wooden architecture. It hosted the 2006 NATO Summit, the Eurovision Song Contest 2003, the 2006 IIHF Men’s World Ice Hockey Championships and the 2013 World Women’s Curling Championship. In 2017, it was named the European Region of Gastronomy. In 2016, Riga received over 1.4 million visitors. The city is served by Riga International Airport, the largest and busiest airport in the Baltic states. It was the European Capital of Culture in 2014, along with Umeå in Sweden. The year 1201 also marked the first arrival of German merchants in Novgorod, via the Daugava river, to defend the territory and trade, which was open to Christian merchants and nobles. The name Riga comes from its already established role in trade: \”Riga nomen sortita est suum ab aedificiis vel horreis quorum a litus Dunae magna fuit copia, quas livones sua lingua Rias vocare soliti. ” Riga Rie, as pronounced in Latvian, is the same as Riga, the name of the town in Latvia.
The town was settled by the Livs, an ancient Finnic tribe, and began to develop as a centre of Viking trade during the early Middle Ages. In 1198, the Bishop Berthold arrived with a contingent of crusaders and commenced a campaign of forced Christianization. The Livs continued to practice paganism and Meinhard died in Uexküll in 1196, having failed in his mission. The Church mobilised to avenge this defeat by declaring a crusade against the Livonians in 1199. In 1200, Bishop Hartwig of Bremen landed in Riga with 23 ships and 500 Westphalian crusaders, and established the Order of the Sword of the Brothers of the Livonian Brothers to defend Riga and defend its territory. In 1201, he transferred the seat of the bishopric of Riga to Riga by force, extorting money from the elders of the city from the nobles and extorting them to do this by force. In 2012, the city was awarded the title of European capital of culture by the European Union. It has been the home of the Eurocities, the Union of the Baltic Cities and Union of Capitals of the European EU. It also hosted the Euro Contest in 2003 and the World Curling Championships in 2013. The Riga Airport is one of the busiest airports in theBaltic states.
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This page is based on the article Riga, Latvia published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 30, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
