Museum of the Occupation of Latvia, Riga, Latvia

Museum of the Occupation of Latvia 1940-1991 (Latvijas okupācijas muzejs) is an historic educational institution. It was established in 1993 to exhibit artifacts, archive documents, and educate the public about the 51-year period in the 20th century when Latvia was successively occupied by the USSR in 1940, then by Nazi Germany in 1941, and then again by the USSR in 1944.

The museum's stated mission is to show what happened in Latvia, its land and people under two occupying totalitarian regimes from 1940 to 1991, remind the world of the crimes committed by foreign powers against the state and people of Latvia and remember the victims of the occupation: those who perished, were persecuted, forcefully deported or fled the terror of the occupation regimes.

The building of the museum was built already in 1971 to celebrate Lenin's 100th birthday and up until 1991 it served as the Museum of Red Latvian Riflemen.

References:

Wikipedia

User Reviews

Marion Jansie (15 months ago)
Very interesting and loads of information to take in. I can imagine some people might think it's to much reading. In these current times with people complaining about having to wear a face mask or showing a covid pass, reading about the occupation of Latvia and the atrocities the inhabitants had to endure that puts things into perspective.

Theo Thustrup Nordstrøm (17 months ago)
Very informative. Volunteers do enthusiastic tell the freedom monument history

Vladimir Titin (18 months ago)
Small museum, but very interesting. the attention given was the best, when they inaugurate in November the new one will have to go.

C C (22 months ago)
Detailed displays the life of Latvians under the Soviet's occupation

Paul (2 years ago)
We had a guided tour through the museum in English which we appreciated. The guide was explaining very nicely but some highlightd were forgotten or quickly explained

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The church is an example of a Gothic structure clothed in Renaissance detail. The church is relatively short in length at 105m, but its interior is 33.45m high to the vaulting. At the main façade, the left tower has been completed in Renaissance style, while the right tower remains a stump. The front and rear aspects provide a remarkable contrast between the comparatively sober classical front and the exuberant rear, which integrates Gothic forms and organization with Classical details. The L"écoute sculpture by Henri de Miller appears outside the church, to the south. A Keith Haring sculpture stands in a chapel of the church.

The Chapel of the Virgin was built in 1640 and restored from 1801 to 1804. It was inaugurated by Pius VII on the 22nd of December, 1804 when he came to Paris for the coronation of Napoleon. The apse chapel, with a ribbed cul-de-four vault, has at its centre a sculpture of the Virgin and Child of Jean-Baptiste Pigalle that the painter Thomas Couture highlighted by three large paintings.

With 8,000 pipes, the organ is reputed to be the largest pipe organ in France, surpassing the organs of Saint Sulpice and Notre Dame de Paris. The organ originally constructed by P.-A. Ducroquet was powerful enough for the premiere of Hector Berlioz" titanic Te Deum to be performed at St-Eustache in 1855.

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