If you're ever in Riga then be sure to look up! Jūgendstils (Art Nouveau) architecture in Riga makes up roughly one third of all buildings in the center of Riga. The city boasts having the highest concentration of Art Nouveau architecture anywhere in the world.
Art Nouveau architecture has an artistic and sculptural style with popularity in Europe between 1890 and 1910. It was inspired by natural forms and structures, particularly the curved lines of plants and flowers, and whiplash forms. The only thing you really need to know is that it's a cool looking style with lots of details.
Between 1910 and 1913, 300 to 500 new buildings were built every year in Riga with most of them in the Art Nouveau style. The old town area has plenty of this architecture but this blog post is for pictures of Alberta Iela (Albert Street), which is a popular set of buildings with the tourists. It was built in 1901 and named after Bishop Albert, who founded Riga in 1201. There's a museum there but I didn't go in.
Here's tons of pics but it's mostly just one street block. There's so much detail on many of the buildings. The old town area is just as good or better than this one concentrated block.
some buildings show their age
mossy bear
flags at a hotel
Old town buildings would be a whole other post but here's a bonus building near our apartment in old town. This is an awesome place to live!
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