Riga, Latvia - Baroque
Riga is best known for its Art Nouveau architecture, of which we'll see examples in a few days. However, the Old Town has a fair number of impressive Baroque buildings, including this cathedral...
(click to enlarge) ... and the spectacular House of the Blackheads (the building on the right). According to Wikipedia,
"House of the Blackheads ... is a building situated in the old town of Riga, Latvia. The original building was erected during the first third of the 14th century for the Brotherhood of the Blackheads Guild, a guild for unmarried German merchants in Riga. [Their patron saint was Mauricius, a black man, hence the name.] Major works were done in the years 1580 and 1886, adding most of the ornamentations.
The structure was bombed to a ruin by the Germans June 28, 1941 and the remains demolished by the Soviets in 1948. The current reconstruction was erected from 1995 to 1999."