Riga TV Tower is the tallest freestanding structure in the European Union. It is 386.5 meters tall and was built in 1987 (completely finished only in 1989). Today it is used for transmitting TV and radio channels as well as providing telecommunication services for various organisations and state institutions.

The tower reminds us a little bit of Eiffel Tower in Paris. It is located just outside the city center on the Zaķusala island in the river Daugava. The tower invites everyone to visit their observation deck which is located at the height of 97m, it is the highest publicly accessible observation point in Riga. In the good weather Riga Gulf, Riga Hydroelectric Power Plant and even Sigulda can be seen.

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Photo: cre8or / flickr.com

More information: Riga TV Tower

In the district of Riga not so much attractive to most tourists there is one more place worth seeing. With its 27 000 members it is the biggest Old Believers preaching house in the world - Grebenshikov’s Old Believers church.

Old Believers became separated from the official Russian Orthodox Church after 1666-1667 as a protest against church reforms introduced by Patriarch Nikon. Their liturgical practices are the same as the Russian Orthodox Church maintained before these reforms.

At the time of reforms many of splitters from the Russian Orthodox Church had to run away from the persecution, they mostly found their shelter in the northern Russia, and also in Latvia which then was partially Polish and Swedish.

The church is named after a rich merchant who supported it for a good while. It is also the only church in Latvia that has a golden dome.

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The Holy Trinity Cathedral in Liepāja is the place of world’s largest historically unreconstructed mechanical organ. The organ has 131 stops, 4 manuals and more than 7000 pipes. Its sound is just magnificent.

You can listen to the organ music concert there or even visit the Organ Music Festival which takes place in Liepāja every year in August or September.

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Links

- The Official Site of Liepāja.

Photo taken from the page of the Cathedral of Holy Trinity.

Ventas Rapid or (Ventas Rumba in Latvian) is the widest waterfall in Europe. It falls on the Venta river near town Kuldiga and is 249 metres wide (up to 270 metres during spring floods). It is 1.80m - 2.20m high. The height depends on the water level in the Venta river.

Located about 150km from Riga. You can reach the waterfall by car. From Riga drive to Ventspils direction, until left turn to Kandava, then follow the signs to Kuldiga.

Detailed information on the map.

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More information: Kuldiga tourism information site.

About four thousand wooden houses. Doesn’t sound like a typical 21st century European capital, but who says Riga is typical? No other European city has so much wooden architecture left from previous centuries.

You can enjoy these nice old buildings already coming from Riga International Airport to the city center on Kalnciema Street where wooden houses stand between stone houses. And this is how it is almost anywhere in Riga. Stone buildings, brick buildings, art nouveau, modern buildings and between them original wooden architecture even from 18th century.

If you head out of the city center you can even find whole quarters of wooden architecture. Ķīpsala is definitely a must visit! But try other places too - Āgenskalns, Maskačka. Or just walk around just outside the UNESCO heritage city center - you may find some unexpected true treasures!

More information: Riga City Council.

Right in the heart of Riga there is a museum similar to which you will not be able to find in Europe. It is the Sun Museum holding a collection of more than 300 suns from various countries. This collection started with a tiny sun in year 1999 and has grown to the largest collection of suns in Europe.

The Sun as the giver of light has been worshiped from the ancient times and still is today. In the Sun Museum in Riga you will be able to see the Sun as a clock, a wind chime, a bird feeder, a fountain. The Sun almost always has a face and the grimaces are very impressive.

In the basement of the museum there is a creative studio where individuals and groups are invited to paint the plaster suns themselves and have them as a gift from the museum. This sun you will be able to take home with you to always have good memories about this warm place!

The Sun Museum is located right in the center of Riga near its City Council.

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Links

- The Sun Museum

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Liepājas House of Craftsmen (Amatnieku nams) is the place where you can take a look at the world’s longest amber necklace.

In 2003 there was an event in Liepāja “Donate amber to your city”. During that event people donated so much amber that the world’s longest string of amber beads could be made. The result of donation is the necklace of 123 metres and 19 kilograms.

Links

- Official Site of Liepāja

Photo taken from the page Sightseeing in the Center of Liepāja.

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Riga has many pearls and jewels hidden and accessible to only those who know where to seek.

In a quiet and peaceful area but still near the Old Town of Riga there is a nice small DECO-style hotel named Elizabete. And inside the hotel, its roof hosts the high class connoisseur restaurant Gourmand.

But in the hotel’s cosy and historical inner yard there is something you won’t be able to see in every hotel. Yes, of course there is a bed in every hotel, but only in the inner yard of Hotel Elizabete on the very beginning of Dzirnavu Street you can experience Europe’s largest bed.

This bed is the place where your body rests but your spirit flies high. Come here to enjoy food or drink, to chat with a friend or a stranger, enjoy the bed during cultural events organized here time after time.

More information: The Large Bed of Elizabete

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Considering the area of Latvia, how small it is, the country could be named as the Land of Lesser Spotted Eagle (Aquila pomarina). Latvia has the highest density of nesting lesser spotted eagles in the world. According to ornithologists about 20 percent of world’s and about 24 percent of Europe’s lesser spotted eagle population is nesting here in Latvia. In the beginning of the 21st century the size of the population was about 5000 pairs.

The lesser spotted eagle is one of the bird species we are paying for our wealth - among their enemies is intense, chemicalized agriculture, they don’t live well together with forestry, escpecially in the springtime.

In 2007, when preparing the new edition of IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, it was considered to list the lesser spotted eagle there mainly because of processes taking place in Latvia where the population of lesser spotted eagle has shrunk by 20 percent since the very end of 20th century.

But anyway - Latvia still is the Land of Lesser Spotted Eagle and the most possibility to see the eagle is right here!

Links and More Information

- Kaspars Funts (Funtaputni) - thanks for the information

- Photo by Jānis Stomers

When we think of willow we think of small trees planted in parks. Sometimes it even can be mistaken as a bush.

But not if we let it grow in natural habitat for more than hundred years, then its girth of the trunk can reach almost 9 meters near the soil and the crown about 26 meters in diameter. That is what has happened to Vaidava Willow near Dzenīši farmstead. Growing there for more than 120 years it is now the largest willow in Europe.

About 100 meters from this willow there was once one even greater. Unfortunately it wasn’t spared in the storm in 1992.

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Photo: Thanks to Ape town Tourism Information Center.