We are sending you some sights of interest from Riga,the capital city of Latvia. We live in a village Engure that is situated on the shore of the Gulf of Riga about 80 km north-west of Riga.

The MONUMENT OF LIBERTY takes a special place in the history of Latvia.It is the spiritual centre of the nation, a symbol of people's longing for independence.It was built in 1935 with the help of people's donations.Its author was an outstanding Latvian sculptor Karlis Zale.The image of liberty holding 3 stars in stretched hands symbolizes unity of the country.The height of the statue is 9 m,the total height - 42 m.

Riga is located on the banks of the Daugava, a full, wide river which flows into the Baltic Sea.Riga was founded in 1201. In 1282 Riga joined the Hanseatic League.In the course of its lifetime Riga has heard the clash of Polish,Swedish,Russian, German swords.Every turn of history left marks in the architec- tural image of the ancient part of the city. OLD RIGA occupies 60 ha.Many of its historical and architec- tural monuments have survived to this day.THE DOME CATHED- RAL (first from the right) is the most famous of them.The famous organ of Dome was made in 1884.At that time it was the biggest in the world.It has 6,718 pipes.

At the turn of the century two fifths of the buildings built in what is now the centre of Riga are in the ART NOUVEAU style.There appeared buildings peculiar due to their over- saturated,over-ornamental decoration. The first examples of Art Nouveau were built in the Old Town of Riga. THIS RENTAL HOUSE was the first built in this style. M.Eizenstein,a civil engineer,was the most outstanding representative of the Decorative Art Nouveau in Riga.

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