The Ethnographic Museum in Riga

Ethnographical museum

Ethnographical museum in Riga was founded in 1924, and since then 118 old buildings have been moved here from all over Latvia – Kurzeme, Vidzeme, Zemgale and Latgale. All of them are located in the museum so as to create an idea of the historical rural landscape of Latvia. The museum presents the buildings of peasants, artisans and fishermen, as well as farm buildings – a tavern, forges, mills, churches. The interior and furnishings of buildings correspond to specific regions of Latvia and the lifestyle of people living in them.

Ethnographic open-air museum in Riga will give a thorough idea of what Latvia looked like in those almost epic times when the peasant was still a universal breadwinner. The museum on the shores of Lake Jugla is an amazing place for long leisurely walks. You can take your picnic basket with you, or you can pay tribute to the Latvian cuisine in a real roadside inn under the pine trees.

The Ethnographic Museum occupies 87 hectares of well-groomed forest park. For display to the public from all four cultural and historical regions of Latvia – Kurzeme, Zemgale, Vidzeme and Latgale – 118 authentic old Latvian buildings were brought here and reassembled. Peasant farmsteads, windmills, forges, pottery furnaces and tarry shops, craftsman’s workshops, characteristic of their locality, in some of which you can observe the work of masters of primordial crafts.

Every year, at the end of the first week of June, an extensive fair is held at the Ethnographic Museum, where Latvian artisans and artists bring high-quality jewelry, textiles, woven and forged products, ceramics, etc.