Riga and Tartu: Part II, from Bruce

In her last post, Barbara captured much of our experiences recently in Riga (capital of Latvia, and largest city in the Baltics) and Tartu (Estonia's "second city" and site of its oldest university). But I'll add a few more words and photos about our time there. These two trips are part of a flurry of traveling we're doing as we near the end of our time in Estonia; a week in Copenhagen (Denmark) and time in Helsinki (Finland) are following, both prompted by Barbara's involvement in workshops, and will (of course!) be the subject of later posts (for those of you who are still hanging in there as at least occasional readers).

As usual, our travels have included at least some time in historic churches. This is almost always about more than just seeing (an often magnificent) church building, or lovely windows.

It's also about theological disputes, the impact of the Reformation, the rise of new social classes, rival empires, and new ideas about how to build and use large interior spaces without some of our modern machinery or tools. The first photo above shows two stained-glass windows at the Dome Church in Riga; local nobles play an important role among the religious figures who are portrayed. When the church was still Catholic, those who were buried in it were long-serving priests and church officials, but after the Protestant Reformation and the transformation of the church to Lutheran control, it seems the rising merchant class was able to be buried

in the church itself (evidently something that carried a lot of status) by making large donations (those who are sociologically inclined may hear echoes of Max Weber's ideas about capitalism and the "Protestant Ethic"!).

The second photo, of the children, illustrates a different part of church life we encounter: the way in which local people participate in church life. These kids--well, to be more accurate, the girls--were being shown how to make sure they had put on their headscarves correctly before going into the large Russian Orthodox cathedral, to be respectful in the sacred space (as does Barbara when we enter Orthodox or Muslim "space.") Inside the cathedral itself, I was struck both by the beauty of the interior, but also that, since Easter, several Orthodox churches we visited have had the door standing open to the inner sanctuary, making visible space and an altar that is not ordinarily seen by the congregation--something unusual enough in our limited experience to have a theological meaning we haven't yet learned.

But, on more mundane matters, the third photo, above, illustrates (if additional proof were needed beyond earlier postings) that people in this part of the world love their cakes and pastries. This is one of a number of small but busy bakeries one finds in the Old Town in Riga in which both locals and tourists happily find something to munch. But it was also just getting warm enough in Riga (at least by mid-day) to enjoy the newly-set up outdoor tables by the myriad of cafes, as seen in the photo to the right.

Workers were busy everywhere putting in low wooden platforms on which diners sit.

And, of course, one of our favorite places to see and sometimes to buy and eat tasty things in the Baltics is at a local "turg" or market. These are the large daily markets found in most eastern European cities where there are dozens, sometimes hundreds, of small booths, arranged in different areas, or even different buildings (for fruits and vegetables; for meat and sausages; for fish; for cheese and dairy products; and often for shoes, clothing, and other specialty items). Many, perhaps most, of the people who are in charge of each shop are women, including the butchers, so these markets provide work for hundreds of (often older) women.

Barbara has a particular love for such places, and she's shown in the photo below to the left at the rather vast Riga turg (this is only one of five covered areas, not to mention outdoor tables).

In some ways these markets seem more part of this and other areas we've been to (including the Middle East, and Southeast Asia with both its day and "night markets"), than of Western Europe or the U.S. These are areas where western style "supermarkets" with pre-packaged foodstuffs and a self-serve attitude are relatively recent, and a large proportion of the local population shop at their traditional markets, especially older folks (I've noticed on the tram in Tallinn how all the older women get off at the stop for the Keskturg (Central Market), while all the teenage girls get off at the stop for the shopping center!

Back to Riga's Old Town. The photo below is of the completely-restored Blackheads Hall, an important organization of influential men in several parts of the Baltics during medieval times. It's rather dazzling to see, but also amazing to realize that it's not the original building, which was destroyed in (I believe) World War II bombing, and yet (like Warsaw's old center) painstakingly recreated. (The medieval, historic areas of European cities can have a rather fairy-tale like appearance and charm, yet the realities of 20th century wars and genocides often lie not far beneath the surface.)

Another area of Riga we were amazed by are the streets where some of the finest examples of Art Nouveau architecture and decoration may be seen. Evidently Riga has more Art Nouveau buildings than any other city in the world (who knew? I wasn't sure what "Art Nouveau" even was!). Whole buildings are works of art, yet sometimes it's the details, as in the photo above, that caught our eye. So much attention was spent on details those actually living in the buildings would not see most of the time, but which would be admired by passers-by. And some of the most interesting details were up near the top of a building, 4-5 stories high!

We were in Riga because Barbara was doing three workshops at a dance conference, arranged through the U.S. Embassy there (she loved seeing what others in her field in this part of the world are doing!). While she was being useful, I would wander off on my own to see more. I liked the museum of Latvian history (full of stuff! pre-historical Latvia! Early ways of life! At heart I'm a bit of a geek.) And (as in Lithuania and Estonia) an important part of the story of Latvia is of the subjugation of the local population by armies bringing Christianity to "pagan" northern Europe around 1200-1300 (the faith was spread not only by devoted church workers but also at the point of a sword). The Germanic armies would eventually usher in German control of the land and the emergence of a German-based nobility and landed elite, with a local peasantry which was increasingly bound to the land as serfs, gaining their release only in the 1840's.)

The basket (photo above) of traditional Latvian work with wool and linen (made by hand from flax) at the museum was part of the story of the daily lives of the peasants--dress, folk songs and dance (as in Estonia, there's a particular rich tradition of folk songs, of which literally thousands have been collected), and the kinds of weaving and knitting by which women might distinguish themselves (the very finest mittens--mittens were essential in the far northern winters--would be part of her wedding things, proof of her talents, and never to be actually worn).

More modern artwork, from the 1960's-1980's, is shown in the photo above to the left, at the Latvian Artists' Union, in a retrospective show of their art from the late Soviet period when new ideas about art were coming in from abroad, and artists were increasingly finding ways to express their ideas without too directly challenging political orthodoxy of the time. Like religion, art seems to be about more than art--reflecting not only individual artists, but broad social trends, political events, the introduction of new techniques and media, and so on.

I'll conclude a perhaps too-long posting with three photos. The one on the lower right is a concert by the Chicago Children's Choir, a group of young people from many different backgrounds but sharing a love for music and a message of love for diversity who wowed an audience of local folks in Riga. They shared the stage with the Girls' Choir from the same Dome Church at which the stained-glass photo above was taken. (The following evening they gave a concert with Bobbie McFerron from the U.S.)

And the last two photos are from Tartu, in southern Estonia. Barbara was invited to do a workshop there with teachers at a school for children with special challenges, but we also had some time to look around. One stop was the greenhouse--with the orchid in the photo below left. After a long, cold winter, it was amazing to feel warm, moist "tropical" air as we stepped inside, to a greenness not seen for some time! Wow!

And the final photo is from Tartu's Old Town, in front of their town hall--right in the area of their old university. Two students are swept up in more than their studies, doubtless much to the delight of many. And that's all for now. Thanks for reading! Bruce