National History Museum of Latvia, Riga

The National History Museum of Latvia is the largest and completest history museum in the country. It was founded in 1869 as a museum of the Riga Latvian Society and was missioned to collect, preserve and display the objects of national heritage. In its initial form, the museum sought to raise the Latvians’ awareness of and to boost their national pride by highlighting their folklore and cultural values. In 1920, the museum was given a permanent location at Riga Castle. Four years later, it was granted the “national status” and its name changed to The State Historical Museum. Before World War II, the museum’s collection had included a number of extremely valuable objects, most of which were taken to Germany in 1944, but later returned. During the Soviet period the museum had to comply with the Communist Party’s policy and ideology, with some exhibits extracted from the collections and replaced with new ones. The Soviet censorship ended in 1991, when Latvia regained its independence. At that point, the museum held over 570,000 artefacts, spanning the period from 8 BC until 1941.

Nowadays, the National History Museum of Latvia boasts over one million objects, grouped into eight permanent sections, displayed chronologically and reflecting Latvia’s history and traditions. The museum also host temporary exhibits on a regular basis.