Portal:Latvia/Featured article/September

Riga (Rīga) the capital of Latvia and the largest city in the Baltic States situated on the Baltic Sea coast on the mouth of the river Daugava. Riga is the largest city in the Baltic states. The Historic Centre of Riga has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the city is particularly notable for its extensive Art Nouveau (Jugendstil) architecture, comparable in significance only with Vienna and Saint Petersburg.

Riga was founded by German traders and missionaries at the site of an ancient settlement of the Livonians, an ancient Finnic tribe, at the junction of the Daugava and Ridzene (Rīdzene) rivers. The Ridzene was originally known as the Riga River, at one point forming a natural harbor called the Riga Lake, neither of which exist today. Riga was dominated first by Germans, later by Sweden and then by Russian Empire until Latvia, with Riga as its capital city, thus declared its independence on 18 November 1918. After World War II Latvia was incorporated in to Soviet Union, however it restored its independence in early 1990s.

In 2001, Riga celebrated its 800th anniversary as a city. In the near future, the face of Riga will undergo notable changes. In 2008, the first stage of the new Southern Bridge route across the Daugava will be completed and will help to reduce traffic jams and the amount of traffic in the city centre. Another construction project is the planned Riga Northern Transport Corridor, which is scheduled to start in 2010. The construction of a new landmark — the Latvian National Library building — will beginning in the autumn of 2007 and is due to be built by 2010. Currently discussions are underway in Riga council about the development of the central areas on the left bank of the Daugava. The major dispute surrounds plans to build skyscrapers in Ķīpsala. The construction of 3 buildings in Ķīpsala has already started — the Da Vinci complex (25 floors, construction stopped) and two high-rises called Z-Towers (30 floors).  ...more&raquo;