After having a 360-degree view from St. Peter's Tower, we got an idea of what our next destination would be. We decided to follow the road towards the Nativity Orthodox Church and wanted to explore all the attractions we would meet along the way.
Hello, friends, travelers, hiveans, and community greetings! Hope you're all doing well and having a nice time with youræs loved ones.. Our main target was to see that beautiful building with the golden dome (until we got there, we didn't know that it was a church) Nativity Orthodox church. we followed the road that we saw from the tower, and we discovered one by one nice places. the road was straight to the Freedom Tower.
In between, we walked from downtown and followed the big cylindrical tower, a huge brick tower with a conical-shaped roof.
But when we came close to it, the big sign had the name of that tower, it called the Powder Tower. Previously, it was named the sand tower, then in the 18th century, they started storing gunpowder in it and named powder tower.
Those tall walls around the tower have a military museum; it was the weekend, and we couldn't get into the museum. Same with this.
The Jokob's barrack building is amazing, a yellow-colored painted building with a complex history and Art Nouveau architectural elements. The wall has coats of arms and Art Nouveau elements, very nicely painted with clear details, but it is not easy to catch them in the camera. I tried to count it, but it wasn't easy for me couldn't stretch my neck.
From a long distance, the Freedom Tower didn't look very crowded. But still, visitors were there.
This tower is built for those freedom fighters who died in the Latvian Freedom War in 1918-1920.
19 meters tall, made of granite and copper, with some sculptures around the base, 4 levels, 13 groups, and 56 sculptures.
On top Liberty statue holding three golden stars, a celebration of freedom.
After looking around, we kept walking and saw a nice garden with a big huge tree holding many bird houses.
And we realized the building with the golden domes is a nice church.
The Riga Nativity of Christ Orthodox Church. nicely shining with its golden domes.
On the entrance Iconic painted arch is very detailed. The entry is free, and you can stay as you wish. I had never visited an Orthodox church before, so I was very interested to see everything.
The altar and the central dome hold a chandelier. Everything is just wow.
The center dome is painted with Christ. Amazing and beyond my imagination as to how they created it.
The church has three compartments: right, left, and center. On the left side, there was a service going on. So we avoided going closer to that side.
But the entire church was so beautiful very hard to choose the place or point where to take photos. The interior is very luxurious and of high artistic quality. I kept taking photos until my battery ran out.
I like the dress of the priest, but I didn't dare to take a photo of him from the front
It might be confession windows, i don't know. The wooden windows are carved and painted very artistically. So beautiful they are.
Now a little bit about the church, this is Riga's biggest church, even after going through 1st and 2nd world Wars, it survived well.
But during the Soviet Era, they closed down the church and made it into a planetarium with a restaurant known as the Republic House of Knowledge.
But after Latvia gained freedom from the Soviet Union, they restored the church, which once again became a sacred building where Orthodox services are held regularly,
All photos are taken by me, and some of the information is from locals and collected from different sources
Thank you very much for stopping by
Take care, see you soon.
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