Nativity Cathedral

Take a moment to admire the Nativity Cathedral, with its golden domes shining and visible from afar, quite a sight, isn’t it? It is the largest Orthodox cathedral in the city and one of the most important religious buildings in the Baltic States. Built between 1876 and 1883 under the Russian Empire with the blessing of Tsar Alexander II, it stands out for its Neo-Byzantine style, its light-coloured façade, and above all its five golden domes, the central one rising to around 40 metres and able to accommodate nearly 2,000 worshippers. Tsar Alexander II even gifted 12 bells to the cathedral as a surprise, which required changes to the original plans to add a separate bell tower. The story of this place doesn’t end there and has been quite eventful. During the First World War, the building was turned into a Lutheran church by German troops, then became Orthodox again after 1921, before closing in 1961 under the Soviet Union and being converted into a planetarium and a café, quite a career for these five domes! After Latvia regained its independence in the 90s, the cathedral was returned to the Orthodox Church, restored, and officially reopened in 2000, with the installation of new bells in 2002, the largest of which weighs more than 13 tonnes, the heaviest in the country.