Smilšu street

One of the oldest streets of Riga. In the XIII-XVII centuries it was the most important and widest street. It began at the fortress gate Smilšu (Sand).

In the Middle Ages, there were two public wells on the street.

In 1639, the gate and the main entrance to Riga were moved to Kalku Street .

During the construction of the Military Museum , a significant number of old houses were demolished. In August 1936, when disassembling the old foundation, a brick with a date of 1427 was discovered. Among the finds during this period were an eight-barreled pistol, old Swedish coins, and various coins of the 16th century. In one of the excavated cellars, a completely isolated room with a secret entrance was discovered, presumably outside the city wall. Tombstones embedded in the foundation of the Powder Tower were discovered ^[2] .

Currently, the street is built up mainly with buildings of the 19th — 20th centuries.

• 1 - Ministry of Finance of Latvia
• 1/3 - the former house of the insurance company "Russia" (1906, architect N. M. Proskurnin ) ^[3]
• 2 - Residential building (1902, architect Konstantin Pekshens , rebuilt in 1909 by architect Paul Mandelstam ) ^[4]
• 3 - former land bank (1910, architects Arthur Mödlinger , Hermann Seiberlich, Theodor von der Osten-Zaken) ^[5]
• d. 4 - Residential building (XVI — XVII centuries, reconstructed in 1988).
• d. 5 - Residential building, built in the style of burgher classicism (1787-1794, architect Christoph Haberland )
• 6 - building of the Riga Bank for Mutual Credit (1910-1912, architect Wilhelm Boxlaf , renovated in 1991-1992 according to the project of architects Zana Kalinka, Andis Silis, Peteris Klava) ^[6]
• d. 7 - Residential building (XV — XVI century, rebuilt into a tenement house with shops in 1890, architect Karl Johan Felsko ).
• d. 8 - Residential building with shops (the former house of Ilya Ivanovich Bobrov, 1902, architects Heinrich Schel , Friedrich Scheffel, restored in 1999-2000 by the project of architect Arnis Kleinberg, Janis Zvejnieks) ^[7] , ^{[8] [9]}
• d. 10 - Residential building (1910, architect Ernest Pole). ^[10]
• d. 12 - Residential building (XVIII century, rebuilt in 1897, architect Karl Johan Felsko).
• d. 14 - warehouses (XVIII century, rebuilt in 1890 in a tenement house with shops, architect German Otto Hilbig )
• d.16 - Residential building (XVII-XVIII centuries, rebuilt in 1910, architect Karl Johan Felsko).
• d.18 - office building (1924, architect Nikolai Herzberger, rebuilt in 1937 by architects Max von Ozmidov, Nikolai Herzberger)
• 20 - Powder Tower , Latvian War Museum

House 8 in the film “ XX Century Begins ” “played” the role of the house, where a large stain of blood was found under the carpet ^[11] .

• Smilšu street // Riga: Encyclopedia = Enciklopēdija “Riga” / ch. ed. P.P. Eran. - Riga: Main Edition of Encyclopedias , 1989. - S. 668-669. - 880 s. - 60,000 copies. - ISBN 5-89960-002-0 .

• Maza Smilšu street

• Smilšu iela (Latvian)
• Smilšu iela (Latvian)