Epilogue

This concluding chapter details the aftermath of the city of Riga, as well as the changes it experienced, after falling to Russian rule. The migration of Jews to Riga, and of Russian officials and laborers, are among the many developments that would take place during the two centuries that followed Riga's capitulation to the tsar. The city's renovation and the appearance of dozens of yellow-brick factory buildings in the suburbs were still to come. The ruined city that fell to Tsar Peter I in 1710 had none of the parks, canals, gardens, and urban villas that would transform Riga into one of northeastern Europe's most attractive and welcoming cities during the twilight years of the Russian Empire. Yet, as this chapter shows, even as Riga tore down its medieval walls in the 1850s and incorporated the suburban areas, where promenades and beautiful homes were built for the city's prosperous bourgeoisie, the oldest parts of Riga would retain many of their traditional features into present times.

Master of Riga: The Archbishop, the Order, and the Rath

This chapter is about Riga's unstable political dynamics. The division of power in Riga satisfied neither the region's supreme religious authority, the Archbishop of Riga, nor the master of the Livonian Order, whose monk-knights were responsible for Livonia's defense. Least of all did the arrangement please the wealthy merchants of the Riga Town Council (Rath), an administrative body that embodied the ideal of urban self-governance. The Rath made law and administered the city's affairs. A set piece of this chapter is the fate of the Riga Castle, which the citizens destroyed twice during Riga's civil wars of the later Middle Ages.

Watering the Nations: Riga and the Northern Crusades

This chapter explores the notion of Riga as a “city of God” to which thousands of monk-knights and other warriors arrived to do battle with the pagans in Livonia, which the crusaders called the “Land of Mary.” Here, the chapter considers the city's role in the Baltic crusade as both a regional trading center and as a gathering point for military expeditions against pagans and Rus'. Riga was virtually surrounded by native tribes, and both pagans and newly baptized converts. And within the city was a military order dedicated to holy war. Riga was also, in every respect, a colonial city, dominated by strangers to the region who arrived in shiploads to make a comfortable living, conquer territory, and spread the faith.

Genesis: Riga before Riga

This chapter is an origin story that introduces the watery and sandy landscape of early Riga and the pagans who lived in or near it at the close of the twelfth century. Riga's relationship with the waters that run past, through, and under it has given rise to many legends and sayings. The chapter considers the efforts of German merchants and Catholic missionaries to trade with and establish Christian communities among the Livish tribes. These tribes lived along the banks of the Düna River (which Latvians know as the Daugava). In doing so, the chapter provides readers with a broader context for understanding these early encounters by examining western Europe's commercial and religious expansion during the Middle Ages.