Art Nouveau District of Riga

The streets around Alberta and Elizabetes hold one of Europe's richest concentrations of Art Nouveau architecture, built during Riga's boom in the early twentieth century. Facades erupt with masks, mythological figures, flowing plant forms and geometric ornament, many designed by Mikhail Eisenstein and local architects. A dedicated museum apartment recreates a bourgeois home of the period. Walking these blocks reveals hundreds of decorated buildings, a legacy recognised as part of the city's UNESCO-listed heritage beyond the medieval old town.