Riga City Map Poster

About Riga

Riga was founded in 1201 and is a former Hanseatic League member. Riga's historical centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, noted for its Art Nouveau/Jugendstil architecture and 19th century wooden architecture. Riga was the European Capital of Culture in 2014, along with Umeå in Sweden. Riga hosted the 2006 NATO Summit, the Eurovision Song Contest 2003, the 2006 IIHF Men's World Ice Hockey Championships , 2013 World Women's Curling Championship and 2021 IIHF World Championship . It is home to BEREC (European Regulators for Electronic Communications). In 2017 it was named as one of top ten digital cities by Forbes .Rīga has always been an important seaport town on Latvia’s Baltic coast line along which goods have been transported from Russia since medieval times; nowadays cargo ships carry containers from Finland to Germany via St Petersburg or vice versa - this route being called "the new silk road".