Castle of Riga was build 1330 by the German crusaders order of Brotherhood of Sword (Schwertbrueder Orden) after 1297 their first castle, built at the beginning of 13th century in the place where currently hotel "Konventa Seta" is located, was destroyed in the clashes between Brotherhood of Sword and citizens of Riga over the authority in Riga city. Finally the crusaders won the battle and let the citizens of Riga build their new castle 1330. When German knights lost the control over Riga at the end of 16th century, castle were mostly used to host the representative of the authority ruling in Riga was it Swedish king, Polish King, finally Russian Tsar. But when Riga became capital of newly established independent Latvia and Riga its capital it was chosed as a official seat of teh President of the Republic. And it still is. |