Nativity Cathedral, Riga

Riga, Latvia

Open to visitors

The interior is normally open, possibly ticketed.

Strollie cannot guarantee access — always check before you travel.

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The Nativity of Christ Cathedral in Riga, Latvia, is a Neo-Byzantine brick structure completed between 1876 and 1883 to designs by Nikolai Chagin and Robert Pflug, with decorative work by the firm of August Volz. Rising 40 meters, it was erected during the Russian Imperial period with the blessing of Tsar Alexander II and the support of local governor-general Pyotr Bagration and bishop Veniamin Karelin, becoming the largest Orthodox cathedral in the Baltic provinces. The cathedral is celebrated for its icons, including works by the painter Vasili Vereshchagin. Its tumultuous twentieth-century history saw it converted into a Lutheran church by German occupants during World War I, reclaimed as an Orthodox cathedral in 1921, and repurposed as a planetarium by Soviet authorities in the early 1960s. Since Latvia's independence in 1991, the building has undergone restoration, including the gilding of its bell tower and dome in 2010 and the installation of new bells cast in Russia in 2002. Today it stands as a national architectural monument of Latvia.