The Nativity of Christ Cathedral (, ),

Riga, Latvia Riga ( ) is the capital, primate, and largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga metropolitan area, which stretches beyond the city lim ...

was built to a design by Nikolai Chagin and

Robert Pflug Robert Pflug (; 1 May 1832 – 30 November 1885) was a Baltic German architect. Robert August Pflug was born in Saint Petersburg as the son of a merchant. He studied at the Technological Institute in Saint Petersburg between 1846 and 1850 and t ...

in a

Neo-Byzantine Neo-Byzantine architecture (also referred to as Byzantine Revival) was a Revivalism (architecture), revival movement, most frequently seen in religious, institutional and public buildings. It incorporates elements of the Byzantine architecture, ...

style between 1876 and 1883, with decorations made by the firm of

August Volz August Franz Leberecht Volz (; 27 February 1851 – 20 June 1926) was a German sculptor. Born in Magdeburg, Volz worked mainly in Riga, the present-day capital of Latvia. The workshop of Volz received prestigious commissions in Riga from its ...

, during the period when the country was part of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. It is the largest Orthodox cathedral in the

Baltic provinces The Baltic Governorates, originally the Ostsee Governorates, was a collective name for the administrative units of the Russian Empire set up in the territories of Swedish Estonia, Swedish Livonia (1721) and, afterwards, of the Duchy of Courlan ...

built with the blessing of the Russian Tsar Alexander II on the initiative of local governor-general

Pyotr Bagration Prince Pyotr Ivanovich Bagration (10 July 1765 – 24 September 1812) was a Russian general and prince of Georgians, Georgian origin, prominent during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Bagration, a member of the Bagrationi dynasty ...

and bishop Veniamin Karelin. The Nativity of Christ Cathedral is renowned for its

icon An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic Church, Catholic, and Lutheranism, Lutheran churches. The most common subjects include Jesus, Mary, mother of ...

s, some of which were painted by Vasili Vereshchagin. During the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

German troops occupied Riga and turned its largest

Russian Orthodox The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

cathedral into a

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

church. In independent Latvia, the Nativity of Christ Cathedral once again became an Orthodox cathedral in 1921. Archbishop

Jānis Pommers Archbishop John (, , secular name Jānis Pommers or Ivan Andreyevich Pommer, ; 6 (18) January 1876 – 29 September (12 October) 1934) was the first Latvian Archbishop of the Latvian Orthodox Church, serving from 1921 to his assassination in 1934 ...

, a native Latvian, played a key part in the defence of the cathedral, including defence from the Latvian government which was extremely unfriendly to Orthodox Church in the first years of an independent Latvia. In the early 1960s, Soviet authorities closed down the cathedral and converted its building into a

planetarium A planetarium (: planetariums or planetaria) is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation. A dominant feature of most planetariums is ...

. The cathedral has been restored since Latvia regained independence from the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

in 1991. In 2002, new bells cast in the Russian ZIL factory were brought. In 2010, the bell tower and the dome were gilded, at a cost of 550,000 euros.

Gallery

File:Riga Russisch-Orthodoxe Kathedrale Christi Geburt 3.JPG, Side door File:Riga Russisch-Orthodoxe Kathedrale Christi Geburt Kuppel.JPG, Central dome File:Riga Petrikirche Blick vom Turm zur Christi-Geburt-Kathedrale 2.JPG, From St. Peter's Church File:Pareizticīgo katedrāle, Rīga, Brīvības bulvāris 23.JPG, Prior to gilding File:Catedral de la Natividad de Cristo, Riga, Letonia, 2012-08-07, DD 06.JPG, Dome interior File:Catedral de la Natividad de Cristo, Riga, Letonia, 2012-08-07, DD 09.JPG, The iconostasis File:Riga1900Kathedrale.jpg, Ca. 1900

References

External links

About Nativity Cathedral on the portal Other Riga
Churches in Riga Cathedrals in Latvia Eastern Orthodox churches in Latvia Byzantine Revival architecture in Latvia Churches completed in 1883 19th-century Eastern Orthodox church buildings Church buildings with domes 19th-century churches in Latvia {{Latvia-church-stub

Gallery

See also

References

External links