The Latvian National Museum of History will mark Lāčplēsis Day on 11 November with a festive program intended for the general public, as it does every year. Admission to the museum on this day is free.
On 11 November, from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., a rarity will once again be on display in the museum at Riga Castle - the only known complete set of the Lāčplēsis War Order in Latvia, awarded to Latvian Army General Jānis Balodis (1881-1965). The tradition of exhibiting it on Lāčplēsis Day has existed since 1988. This year visitors will also be able to see the tea (coffee) service, once owned by the family of Lāčplēsis War Order recipient Jāzeps Sikora, decorated with the order's symbolism and now held in the museum's collection.
Throughout the day, several guided tours led by numismatists from the Latvian National Museum of History will take place in the exhibition “The Lāčplēsis War Order”, where they will talk about the creation of the Lāčplēsis Order, its recipients, and the traditions of celebrating this day in interwar Latvia and in exile. The tours will begin at 11:00, 15:00, 17:00, 18:30, and 19:30, and no advance registration is required.
Visitors will also be able to view photographs from the War of Independence, showing both battle scenes and the everyday life of Latvian Army soldiers.
At 6: 00 p.m., a concert by the mixed choir of the Jāzeps Mediņš Music High School, students from the String Instrument Department, and the percussion ensemble “Echo” will begin at the museum. This will be followed at 7:00 p.m. by a concert by the mixed choir “Cilts” of Riga Jānis Šteinhauers Secondary School.
The museum warns that the exhibition “Livonian Castles” in the Vaulted Cellars will be open on 11 November only until 6:00 p.m.!
THE LATVIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM OF HISTORY (LNVM)
is the third oldest museum in Latvia and the only museum of Latvian history in the world. LNVM has become the largest repository of the Latvian people's museum treasures - its collections contain more than one million items: antiquities from archaeological excavations, jewelry and coin hoards, folk costumes, traditional tools, examples of folk applied art, household objects, photographs, documents, maps, engravings, paintings, and other evidence of Latvia's history.
The museum's mission is to collect, preserve, research, and popularize evidence of the spiritual and material culture of Latvia and the world from the earliest times to the present day, in the interests of the Latvian state and nation, in the fields of archaeology, ethnography, numismatics, history, or art history.
The origins of the museum's collections date back to the Commission of Knowledge of the Riga Latvian Society, founded in 1869, and its collection of ethnographic treasures, which resulted in the Latvian Museum. In February 1920, it was taken over by the newly established Latvian state to continue developing as a national cultural and memory institution under the name Latvian Ethnographic Museum, which was renamed the State Historical Museum in 1924.
Since 1920, the museum has been located in Riga Castle, except for the period from 2013 to 2024, when the castle premises were renovated. The museum has returned to Riga Castle, but its collection, administration, and specialists are located at the Museum Storage Facility on Pulka iela 8.
The Latvian National Museum of History is an important research center and an active promoter of Latvian history and culture. The museum is characterized by the great diversity of its collections, research topics, exhibitions, and educational programs - it conducts research, organizes conferences and seminars, creates traveling exhibitions, cooperates with Latvian schools and institutions, and publishes collections of articles and other publications.
The branches of the Latvian National Museum of History are Dauderi and the Museum of the Popular Front.
