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Freedom Monument
The famous monument on Brivibas Boulevard is a pylon with the inscription “Tēvzemei un Brīvībai” (“To Fatherland and Freedom”), topped by a nine-meter statue of a young woman. This is a collective image of Freedom, holding three gilded stars above her head. The stars symbolize the historical regions of Latvia – Kurzeme, Vidzeme and Latgale.
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The authors of the monument are sculptor Karlis Zale and architect Ernest Stalberg. Both studied at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts during the Russian Empire; Zale under the famous sculptor Alexander Matveev, Stalberg under the painter Leontius Benois. Their project, which won the competition in 1923, was called “Mirdzi kā zvaigzne!” (“Shine Like a Star!”) and was designed as a memorial to the soldiers who fell in battle during the Latvian War of Independence in 1918-1920. The monument was completed in 1935 with the help of private donations.
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During the Soviet era the monument was planned to be demolished, but it still stood; the salvation of the Freedom Monument is sometimes attributed to the sculptor Vera Mukhina, the author of the monument “Worker and Kolkhoz Woman” – some sources claim that the sculptor saw in it a high artistic value and insisted on its preservation.
Address: Brīvības laukums, Centra rajons, Rīga, LV-1050, Latvia
The sculptures on Boguslavsky’s house
One of the characteristic changes in Art Nouveau was the place of women in paintings, monuments, and buildings. They began to be depicted in a more sensual and erotic way. In his book “The Age of Insight”, Eric Kandel, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine (2000), writes that this was due in part to the development of psychoanalysis: painters and sculptors were increasingly drawn to subjects related to the taboo subjects of female sexuality and aggression. Unconcealed eroticism and sensuality, bordering on depravity, and a certain sinister nature as the eternal companion of female images are synonymous with Art Nouveau.
It is easy to see this when walking through Riga’s famous Jugenstil district near the Boulevard Ring. At 2A Alberta Street, there is a house flanked by sculptured female figures. They are half-naked, and their poses are not the least bit self-conscious – on the contrary, their heads are raised to the sky, and they hold torches. The entrance to the building is guarded by two sphinxes – mysterious creatures with female faces, as well as Egyptian motifs in general, were also frequent companions of Art Nouveau. The design is complemented by geometric ornaments stylized in ancient Egypt.
This house, built in 1906, is one of the last examples of Jugenstil architecture in Riga. Like many buildings in the area, it was designed by Mikhail Eisenstein, father of the famous film director Sergei Eisenstein. It is believed that the architect sketched the sphinxes at the age of 10. The project was commissioned by Vladimir Boguslavsky, a captain and wealthy Riga resident. From 1916 to 1930, the house belonged to a Latvian landlady named Lube, during which time the building was used as a school for obstetricians and a maternity clinic.
Address: Alberta iela 2A, Centra rajons, Rīga, LV-1010, Latvia
Apartment building on Rūpniecības street
Another beautiful female Jugenstil image is the figure with a lyre in her hands on the facade of the house at Rūpniecības iela 1. The sculpture symbolizes art and beauty.
A few more female faces are represented in the form of mascarons, which was the name given to sculptural decorative elements in the form of a mask or face. They are also very popular in various types of Art Nouveau. Art Nouveau mascarons often depict the faces of young women and the typology of the femme fatale – a fatal, mysterious and seductive person belonging to the world of night. With her charms, she lures her lovers into a trap, sometimes a deadly one.
The architect of the 1903 building was Rudolf Heinrichs Zirkwitz, who also designed residential ensembles on the neighboring Vīlandes Street, as well as Birini Country Castle and Igathe Manor.
Apartment building on Vīlandes street
Another creation of Rudolf Heinrichs Zirkwitz is a neo-baroque eclectic building on Vīlandes Street. The house, like other buildings in the area, was built at the end of the 19th century. Its most notable features are the corner tower with a rounded dome and the similarly shaped keyhole-shaped entrance portal flanked by two female semi-nude figures, which are slightly asymmetrical in relation to each other. This slight discrepancy dilutes the impression of the overall austerity and classicism of the façade.
Despite its outstanding artistic merits, the building was in a dismal state for a long time, but then it was restored. It is now the luxury residential complex Villa 11.
Sculptures by Evi Upeniece
Legendary master sculptor Evi Upeniece, who passed away in August 2024, worked until her last day. At the age of 95, she opened the exhibition “Zemes meita” (“Daughter of the Earth”), named after her work of the same name. In Riga, her sculptures can be seen in various exhibitions – including the Arsenal Hall of the Riga National Museum of Art. In 2019, she donated a collection of plaster sculptures to the Preiļi Museum of History and Applied Art.
Many of Upeniece’s works are female figures in which tenderness is combined with great strength. In the last years of her life, she emphasized that sculpture consists not of three but of four dimensions, the fourth of which is the soul. This is probably why she was so good at sculptural portraits: the actresses Astrida Kairisha and Ausma Ziedone-Kantane, the artist Maja Tabaka, the poet Olga Lisovskaya were her sitters.
“Dance of Peace”
The graceful composition on the bank of the Riga Canal on the side of Rainia Boulevard is the work of sculptor Parsla Zalkalne. It was installed after a campaign for the reconstruction of Riga’s parks was launched in 1968. In essence, it represents “Three Graces”, who have intertwined their hands in a dance and are spinning in a circle. The work was inspired by Henri Matisse’s painting “Dance” and the work of Swedish sculptor Carl Milles.
The Riga Municipal Monument Agency notes that the sculpture’s challenging title, “Dance of Peace,” gave the sculptor more creative freedom: it was customary to mask female nudity, but this was avoided here because the work illustrated a “socially important theme” – world peace.
The Statue of Daugava
In the early 1970s, the Riga Sea Passenger Port commissioned a sculpture to welcome guests arriving by sea, which could be seen from the deck of the ship. The sculpture was made in the Māksla factory, where many of Latvia’s most famous sculptors worked. The copper female figure symbolizing the Daugava River was designed by Viktorija Pelše, a prominent Latvian sculptor, one of the co-authors of Ernst Neizvestny.
The sculpture was installed in 1972 near the Riga Naval Station on a 5-meter-high concrete pole. Daugava, as interpreted by Pelshe, is a woman with loose hair and a puffy dress. She stands on a ship stylized as a weathervane and extends her hand to the water.
Address: Eksporta iela 3A, Ziemeļu rajons, Rīga, LV-1010, Latvia
The Nymph Fountain
The Nymph Fountain is one of the oldest and most famous fountains in Riga. It was created in 1887 by Augusts Folts, a German-born sculptor from Riga, who is often called the main sculptor of Riga before the First World War. He worked on the fountain at the same time as restoring the interiors of the National Opera. The building is nearby and was severely damaged by fire, and the fountain became part of the new landscaping.
In the center of the fountain is a young girl standing on a rock, holding a seashell above her head. At her feet, four children play with dolphins. There is still some debate about who was the model for the sculpture. It is known that for a long time Foltz could not find a sitter for the statue, so the town began to gossip that it was Amalia Reingold – a favorite of Tsar Alexander III, who was acquainted with Foltz. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that she also had four children, but there is no other confirmation. According to another version, Foltz fell in love with an unknown model and deliberately delayed the execution of the commission in order to spend a long time alone with his beloved.
The current nymph is a copy of the fountain installed in 1986. The original is in the Rundale Palace Museum.
Address: Aspazijas bulvāris 20, Centra rajons, Rīga, LV-1050, Latvia