in Aqua Scripto on 13 Feb 2006  •  Link

Poor Riga, it be rich in goods that its neigbours wanted. How many languages did they learn, so that they could survive the Northerners,Southerners, Westerners, and then those Easterners.
Meanwhile the traders from London wanted their Tar, Pine trees Twine and Sables that be from Russia.
AH! trade, be good.
http://www.latvia-usa.org/hisofla….

Terry F on 14 Feb 2006  •  Link

The gateway to the Baltic, it indeed became servant to many masters - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riga…

An image of Riga in 1650 from the previous article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imag…

dirk on 14 Feb 2006  •  Link

Riga

A nice high resolution image of 17th c Riga.

http://historic-cities.huji.ac.il…

This is a detail of a larger map. The "fireworks display" on the map is actually the artist's interpretation of the fighting during a siege in 1656.

Legend to the original map, including details on the fighting:
"Delineatio Regiae Urbis Rigae et Obsidionis : qua à Magno Moschorum Czare Alexi Michalowitz a die 22 Augusti usque ad 5. Octob. Anno 1656, Exercitu 118 000 militum arctissimè pressa, sed Strenua defensorum virtute sub ductu Illustrissmi. et Excellentiss. Dn. Comitis Magni Gabriel. Dela Gardie Reg. Suec. Theßaurarii, et Exercituum per Livoniam Generalissimi liberata fuit." See full map:
http://historic-cities.huji.ac.il…

Sorry, but my Latin is too rusty for a translation...

dirk on 14 Feb 2006  •  Link

Riga - the siege of 1656

For those intrigued by the latin text above. This is the story behind it.
In 1656, during the Swedish-Russian War of 1655-1661, the Russian Tsar Alexis Mikhaïlovitch temporarily laid siege to Riga, in an attempt to take back part of the Baltic coast area. At the time Riga was Swedish. The city defended itself so heroically that the Tsar had to give up the siege. This earned the city the right to include the crown of the Swedish King (Karl Gustav X) in its coat of arms.