Renaming Basteja bulvaris

Aug 13, 2008

The decision of mayor Janis Birks and the Riga City council to rename Basteja bulvaris is in my opinion a big mistake and shows little cultural-historic understanding for the development of Riga.

Basteja bulvaris is the original street name dating from the mid-nineteenth century when the city got its beautiful boulevard-ring and parks. At the same time I think that it is a very good idea to honor pre-war foreign minister Zigfrids Anna Meierovics with a street name, but I think that naming the square next to the Foreign Ministry building after this outstanding politician would be much more appropriate.

Of course I know that in 1929 there was already a name change and many more historic street names were changed during the authoritarian era of president Ulmanis in order to remove the German cultural influence in the Latvian capital.

But I think not everything pre-war should be automatically return. It would, for example, make little sense today to rename Doma laukums into the pre-war “15-Maija laukums.” So my essential message is: Yes, honor your outstanding Latvians, but please not on expense of the historical important street names.

And if Janis Birks and the Riga City Council really care about Latvian history, priority should be given to a better supervision of monument protection, because at the moment (I feel sorry to say) many beautiful buildings in Riga are being spoilt by neglect or extremely unprofessional renovation.  

Frederik Erens, historian,
The Netherlands.



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