Pārdaugava manors

Ēbeļmuiža

A recently abandoned manor house in classical style with baroque elements, located in a cozy and quiet park area of Ziepniekkalns, has been revived by a new owner.

The manor house was built at the end of the 18th century and at that time belonged to Justus Blankenhagen (then called Klatzo Manor). Later it was acquired by Joachim Ebel, a wealthy merchant of the Riga Merchant Guild and an elder of the Blackhead Society. He put his heart and soul into the place—he laid out a park, built a greenhouse and a garden pavilion. The estate was popular among the richest and most noble landowners of Riga. Johannes Brotse in 1805 made an engraving of the luxurious two-storey house with many additions, sculptures and landscaping elements.

Mareks Mamajs and his wife Agnese Mamajs acquired the property about ten years ago and have made great efforts to breathe new life into the abandoned manor house. The work was based on an architectural and artistic study as well as a design by architect Artur Lapinja. The building has now been carefully reconstructed to meet modern requirements. The historic manor also has a spacious glass annex. The estate has three showrooms, a specially equipped kitchen for banquets and a three-room living room on the second floor, while the third floor has spacious attic rooms. A new garden has been laid out around the house and parking spaces have been provided.

The spacious Ēbeļmuiža Park surrounding the estate is a popular recreation place among the locals. There are sports and children’s playgrounds, pedestrian paths where you can ride a bicycle or scooter. The territory is decorated with light installations. A local landmark is a 300-year-old oak tree—one of the oldest in Pārdaugava.

Bišumuiža

On the quiet green outskirts of Pārdaugava, between two highways and the Bieķengrāvis channel, there is an old abandoned manor house, which gave its name to the surrounding area.

The manor house appeared on this spot in 1773—at that time it was called Binenhof Manor (“Bee Manor”). The first owner of Bischumuizhi was Anna Katrina Schilder. Then around 1810 it was acquired by the merchant Jekabs Johans Brandenburg, who in the 1820s built a classicist house with Ionic four-column porticoes on both longitudinal facades, which can still be seen today.

A six-room apartment was arranged on the first floor of the building, its central room was an oval hall, typical of classicism, with painted walls. The floor in the master’s house was covered with artistic parquet, and in the basement the master’s kitchen was decorated with Dutch (Delft) tiles. There were three living rooms on the mezzanine floor. This type of planning is more common in rural areas than in cities.

In the middle of the 19th century, the estate was expanded and the old mill building was rebuilt into an oil mill. In 1871 the oil mill was bought by Gumals Gustavs Knopp, who founded a paper mill in its place.

After World War II, in the 1950s, the building of the manor house was converted into administrative premises of the “Rīgas stikls” factory, while the adjacent auxiliary buildings were used as warehouses.

Now the manor looks abandoned. The gardener’s house, stables and park alley have been preserved to this day.

Borherta muiža

Built in the middle of the 18th century, Borherta muiža is one of the three oldest wooden buildings in Riga. Back during the Swedish rule, in the 17th century, the Gravenhof estate was located near the present building and the Marupīte River.

The interior and decorative elements of the building are of exceptional value. In the Baroque period, the doors of the palace had rounded panels and were finished in marble. The floors were boarded and waxed. Old photos show elegant, ornate stoves, one of which has survived from the Baroque period. From the third quarter of the 18th century, the interior walls of the building were covered with paper wallpaper—very progressive for the time.

After the First World War, the manor buildings and the adjacent land were bought by the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church. In 1931 a school was built in the manor park, where the church gymnasium moved to. In 1999 the building was partially dismantled, the veranda and some valuable structural elements were unfortunately lost. In 2020 the manor was renovated. Now it belongs to the Riga English Gymnasium, and elective classes are held here.