Walking tour in my suburb Tornakalns - Tile I

I wanted to start walking tour through my suburb with watching and to find out more about old wooden buildings in it. Tornakalans (Tower Hill, Thorensburg) located on the westbank of Riga.

During the Middle Ages, as well as nowadays, one could get to Riga from south and west only by crossing the River Daugava. The first bridge across the Daugava, however, was built only 1701, so throughout  the Middle Ages all traffic was carried on by boats and farries, in winter on sledges over the frozen river. The traffic across the Daugava was particularly important to those citizens who had horses and cattle, for they had meadows in the environs across the Daugava - simply called ultra Dunam, over der Dune by medieval Rigans, and hay as fodder for their animals was as important as food to the animals' owners. In medieval Pārdaugava several ecclesiastical institutions as well as some of the richest merchants had set up farms, and the cathedral chaplain had its watermill. At the left bank of the Daugavas several important transit highways also began, leading to Zemgale and Kursa and, further, to Memel (Klaipeda) and Prusia, where the Teutonic Knights had their headquarters.

At the end of 18th and at the beginning of 19th century Tornakalns was the place of the rest rich townsman, who built their farmsteds here.

Why wooden  buildings? Forests and timber materials are national values of Latvia. It accounts for a strong tradition of wooden architecture, which stands out with a diversity of styles and unusually high level in artisanship. Taking into account that Riga has always been an international seaport and Baltic metropolis, the wooden architecture mavellously combines influences of Latvian, German, Russian, Swedish and Polish artisanship. Riga's wooden houses are richly adorned.

Riga map showing wooden buildings

Wooden Buildings Map

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Tornakalns.Wooden houses

Riga's historic center houses an estimated 5000 buildings, and 10% of them are wooden heritage sites. All of Riga can boast of 3500 historical wooden buildings. This dotted map highlights Riga's wooden heritage - which may be linkened to a constellation entwined the urban fabric.

References:
Other Riga www.citariga.lv
Riga wooden architecture.Office of the Riga architect
Senā Rīga (Old Riga), Latvijas Vēstures institūta apgāds, 1998