Riga

The most photographed building in Riga stands on Town Hall Square, a riot of stepped gables, statues and a gilded astronomical clock. It was built in the 14th century for the Brotherhood of Blackheads, a guild of unmarried foreign merchants, and was famed for its parties. Bombed in 1941 and cleared by the Soviets, it was rebuilt from old plans and photographs in time for the city's 800th anniversary in 2001. The interiors include the vaulted cellars and the grand assembly hall, and the building also serves as a residence for the President of Latvia, so it may close for official events.

TipAccording to legend, Riga's first decorated Christmas tree was set up by the Blackheads in 1510; a plaque on the square marks the spot.

Facing the House of the Blackheads across a small square, in a dark, Soviet-era block on Latviešu strēlnieku laukums, renovated and extended with a new wing, this museum tells the story of the Soviet and Nazi occupations between 1940 and 1991: deportations to Siberia, the Holocaust in Latvia, the partisan war and the peaceful struggle for independence. Letters, personal objects and a replica of a Gulag barrack make it moving rather than dry. The museum also runs tours of the former KGB headquarters, the "Corner House" at Brīvības iela 61, where cells and interrogation rooms can be seen.

TipThe main museum opens daily from 10am to 6pm, except on a few public holidays. Allow at least two hours.

Just behind Town Hall Square, St Peter's is one of the oldest buildings in the city, a red-brick Gothic church whose wooden spire has been rebuilt several times after lightning, collapse and war. The current steel version, completed in 1973 to the 18th-century design, carries a lift to a viewing gallery about 72 metres up. From here you look down on the jumble of red roofs, the river and its bridges, and out over the Art Nouveau quarter and the Soviet-era Academy of Sciences tower.

TipGo up late in the afternoon for the best light on the old town. The church and the tower share one ticket, and hours are shorter in winter.

The Dom, Riga's Lutheran cathedral, was begun in 1211 and is the largest medieval church in the Baltic states, mixing Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque work. Its great treasure is the organ, built in the 1880s and once the largest in the world, which is heard in regular short concerts. The cloister, with its collection of old stone carvings and a weathercock that once topped the spire, is one of the oldest in the region. Outside, Dome Square is the old town's biggest open space, lined with café terraces in summer and home to the Christmas market in December.

A short walk north on Mazā Pils iela, three narrow houses stand side by side, each from a different century. The oldest, with its stepped gable and tiny windows, is thought to date from the late 15th century and is the oldest surviving stone house in the city; its neighbours show how merchant homes grew larger and lighter over the following 200 years. Today they house the Latvian Museum of Architecture.

At the river end of the old town, the long white castle was founded in the 14th century by the Livonian Order and has been rebuilt many times. It is the official seat of the President of Latvia, and part of it is home to the National History Museum of Latvia; a long restoration followed a serious fire in 2013. Walk round to the riverside for the best view of its round towers.

Riga was ruled by Sweden for most of the 17th century, and in 1698 a gate was cut through a house in the city wall on Torņa iela so residents could reach the Swedish barracks. It is the only surviving gate of the old fortifications. Beside it, a stretch of reconstructed wall and the row of yellow former barracks, the Jacob's Barracks, now holding shops and cafés, make one of the prettiest corners of the old town. The round Powder Tower, the last of the town's defensive towers, is a few steps away.

Just outside the old town, on the boulevard ring, a slender column rises 42 metres to a copper figure of Liberty holding up three gold stars, symbols of Latvia's historic regions. Unveiled in 1935 and paid for by public donations, it survived the Soviet years, when laying flowers here could lead to arrest, and became the rallying point of the independence movement in the late 1980s. An honour guard stands at its foot during the day, with a short changing ceremony on the hour.

TipWalk on through Bastejkalns, the park beside the canal that follows the line of the old moat, to the opera house and the flower market.

The country's main art museum occupies a grand building of 1905 at the edge of Esplanāde park, restored and extended with underground galleries in 2016. Its collection runs from 18th-century Baltic German portraits to Latvian painters of the late 19th and 20th centuries, such as Vilhelms Purvītis, Janis Rozentāls and Johann Walter, whose landscapes of snow, birch woods and spring floods give an excellent feel for the country. The rooftop terrace has a fine view over the park.

North of the museum, the streets of the "quiet centre" are lined with apartment blocks covered in faces, masks, sphinxes, peacocks and swirling plant forms. Alberta iela is the showpiece: nearly every building on this short street dates from the early 1900s, several of them by Mikhail Eisenstein, whose facades are the most theatrical. Elizabetes iela and Strēlnieku iela continue the parade, while later buildings show the calmer national romantic style that drew on Latvian folk art. The Riga Art Nouveau Centre, at Alberta iela 12, preserves a period apartment with its furniture, stained glass and painted stairwell.

TipLook up; the best details are often on the upper floors and corner towers. Morning light falls on the east side of Alberta iela, afternoon light on the west.

South of the old town, beyond the railway, five huge arched pavilions hold one of the largest markets in Europe. They were built in the 1920s and 1930s reusing the frames of German Zeppelin hangars from the First World War, and each one is roughly given over to a different trade: meat, fish, dairy, vegetables and so on. Come for smoked fish, rye bread, honey, sauerkraut, berries and mushrooms in season, and for the stalls of ready food. The market is part of the World Heritage Site.

TipBehind the market, the red-brick warehouses of Spīķeri have been turned into a small arts and café quarter. Beyond, the Academy of Sciences, a Stalin-era skyscraper, has a viewing terrace on its upper floors.

Across the Daugava in Pārdaugava, Riga's wooden architecture is less famous but no less charming. Around Kalnciema iela, a group of restored 19th-century wooden houses with carved porches surrounds a courtyard that hosts a weekend market of farmers, bakers and craftspeople, along with concerts and festivals in summer. The surrounding streets are full of other timber houses, some lovingly restored and some still waiting.

TipThe market is held on Saturdays; check the quarter's website for the season's events. Trams cross the river from the old town in a few minutes.

In the north of the city, Mežaparks was laid out in the early 1900s as one of Europe's first garden suburbs, with villas set among tall pines beside Ķīšezers lake. Locals come to walk, cycle and swim, and the park is home to Riga Zoo and to the huge open-air stage where the Latvian Song and Dance Festival, a UNESCO-listed tradition, holds its massed choir concerts every five years. A tram runs here from the centre.

On the shore of Lake Jugla, on the eastern edge of the city, more than a hundred historic buildings have been moved from every region of Latvia into a pine forest: farmsteads, windmills, a wooden church, a fishermen's village and a tavern. In summer, craftspeople demonstrate weaving, pottery and blacksmithing, and the museum's annual crafts fair in early June is one of the country's biggest. It is one of the oldest open-air museums in Europe, founded in 1924.

TipWear comfortable shoes; the grounds cover a large area. Buses run from the city centre in about 40 minutes.

West of Riga, Jūrmala is a resort town strung along some 25 kilometres of white sand beach between the Gulf of Riga and the Lielupe river. Its summer villas, many of them wooden with fretwork verandas, date from its heyday as a spa resort in the Russian Empire and later as a favourite of the Soviet elite. Majori is the centre, with the pedestrian street Jomas iela leading to the beach. The water is shallow and cool, and the long, quiet shore is lovely for walking even out of season.

TipTrains from Riga Central Station reach Majori in about half an hour. Cars entering Jūrmala must pay a seasonal entry fee in the warmer months, so the train is the easier choice.

About an hour north-east of Riga by train, the Gauja river has cut a wooded valley through sandstone, with red cliffs and caves along its banks. Latvia's oldest national park protects it, and the town of Sigulda makes an easy base. Here you can see the ruins of the medieval Livonian Order castle beside the 19th-century New Castle, ride the cable car across the valley, walk forest trails to Gūtmaņa Cave, the largest in the Baltics, or try the Olympic bobsleigh track. In autumn, when the trees turn gold and red, the valley is at its best.

On the far side of the valley from Sigulda, the red-brick tower of Turaida Castle rises above the trees. Built from the 13th century for the Archbishop of Riga, it is now the centre of the Turaida Museum Reserve, which includes a wooden church, a sculpture park dedicated to Latvian folk songs and the grave of the "Rose of Turaida", a young woman whose 17th-century love story is one of the country's best-known legends. Climb the main tower for a view over the forest.

TipBuses link Sigulda and Turaida, or you can walk there in about an hour via the cable car and the trails past Gūtmaņa Cave.

About 80 kilometres south of Riga, near the Lithuanian border, rises the finest Baroque palace in the Baltics. It was designed in the 1730s by Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli, the architect of St Petersburg's Winter Palace, as a summer residence for Ernst Johann von Biron, Duke of Courland. Its restored state rooms, especially the gilded Golden Hall and the White Hall with its stucco decoration, and the formal French garden with its large rose garden, are a startling sight in the farmland of Zemgale.

TipPublic transport is slow, with a change in Bauska, so most visitors drive or join a tour. The gardens are at their best from June to August, when the roses are in bloom.