Riga’s religious architecture reflects over eight centuries of cultural exchange, political transformation, and community life. This digital guide offers an interactive way to explore active and inactive places of worship across the city churches, synagogues, mosques, monasteries, chapels, and other structures with sacred or historical significance.
This digital guide documents and interprets Riga’s places of worship as both religious institutions and architectural monuments. By combining historical research, spatial data, and digital mapping tools, the project offers a comprehensive overview of active and inactive religious sites across the city, revealing how faith, architecture, and urban development intersect over time.
This website was developed as part of a master’s-level Digital Humanities project. It integrates traditional humanities research—archival studies, architectural history, and religious studies—with digital tools such as GIS mapping, data visualization, and web-based publication.
Sources include materials from the Latvian State Historical Archives, academic literature on religious and architectural history, archaeological research on Riga’s historic center, and visual documentation from archival and field research. By bringing these materials together in a single digital environment, the project demonstrates how digital methods can expand access to cultural heritage and support interdisciplinary scholarship.
can use the interactive map and structured database to analyze historical patterns, architectural typologies, and the spatial distribution of religious communities across different periods. The platform supports comparative research and interdisciplinary inquiry in fields such as history, architecture, religious studies, and digital humanities.
are provided with a clear and reliable guide to both prominent and lesser-known places of worship. By combining historical context with geographic navigation, the website offers an accessible way to explore Riga’s religious heritage beyond conventional tourist routes.
Riga’s cultural diversity and religious history can gain insight into how faith, architecture, and urban development have shaped the city over centuries. The guide encourages a deeper understanding of religious coexistence and the evolving cultural landscape of Latvia’s capital.
Visualizes the spatial distribution of Riga’s religious sites. The map allows users to explore locations by denomination, architectural style, historical period, and current status (active or inactive), offering both a research tool and an accessible public guide.
Makes it possible to trace how religious life in Riga has shifted over time from early medieval settlement patterns to the suppression of religious practice during the Soviet period and the reemergence of diverse religious communities after Latvia regained independence.