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Museums & Galleries in Riga
Latvia's capital on the river Daugava, a Baltic port whose UNESCO-listed centre pairs a medieval Hanseatic old town with the largest concentration of Art Nouveau architecture in Europe, wrapped around the vast Zeppelin-hangar halls of the Central Market and a busy calendar of art, food and folk-song events.
Why here
Riga holds the whole span of Latvian art within a short walk. The Latvian National Museum of Art, in a restored 1905 building on Jana Rozentala laukums, lays out the national story from the end of the eighteenth century to the end of the twentieth across its main galleries and underground halls. A few minutes south, near the Central Market, Zuzeum shows the Zuzans Collection, the largest private hoard of Latvian art in the world, from early modernism to nonconformist and contemporary work. Between the two you get the official canon and its private, edgier counter-collection, both with English-language material and neither swamped by crowds. Step outside and the city itself is a museum: the Alberta iela quarter carries the densest run of Art Nouveau facades in Europe.
Best months
Both museums are indoor and open year-round, so this pairing works in any season and is a strong wet-weather option. Both typically close on Mondays and are quietest on weekday mornings. Riga's Art Nouveau district a few streets away is best seen in daylight for the facade detail.
Getting there & around
The Latvian National Museum of Art sits on the edge of the Esplanade park, walkable from the Old Town. Zuzeum is about a kilometre south near the Central Market, an easy walk or short tram ride. Both offer English-language guided tours; book art-museum group tours a couple of weeks ahead and check temporary-exhibition ticketing.
Skill levels: beginner
Schools & guides (2)
Latvian National Museum of Art
OrganizerThe Latvian National Museum of Art holds the largest collection of national art in Latvia, spanning the end of the eighteenth century to the end of the twentieth. Its main building on Jana Rozentala laukums in Riga opened in 1905 to a design by architect Wilhelm Neumann and reopened in 2016 after a reconstruction that added underground galleries. It runs English-language guided tours and oversees the Art Museum Riga Bourse and the Museum of Decorative Arts and Design.
Zuzeum Art Centre
OrganizerZuzeum is the home of the Zuzans Collection, the largest private collection of Latvian art in the world, with close to 30,000 works assembled by the collector and philanthropist Janis Zuzans. It opened to the public on 10 September 2020 in a former cork factory built in 1910 by the architect Edmund von Trompowsky, near the Riga Central Market. Its two halls total about 1,250 square metres and rotate shows from early Latvian modernism through nonconformist to contemporary art.