Latvian Museum of National History

The Latvian Museum of National History (Latvian: Latvijas Nacionālais vēstures muzejs), is a national history museum in Riga, Latvia.

Museum logo.

It was founded in 1869 by the Riga Latvian Society.

Since 1920 it has been located in Riga Castle and in 1924 it attained state museum status. Its mission is "to collect, preserve, research and popularise spiritual and material culture from Latvia and the world from ancient times until today, which has archaeological, ethnographic, numismatic, historical or artistic significance, in the interests of the Latvian nation and its people".

Since May 2014 the main exhibition space has been temporarily located on Freedom Boulevard (Brīvības bulvāris) in a three-story building dating from 1875, originally constructed as a family home by architect Heinrich Scheel. The location is close to the Freedom Monument. For many years it was painted with an advertisement for the newspaper Diena, often visible in photographs of the monument. In 2015 it was replaced with an advert for Air Baltic. From 1946-2009 the building was used as the Faculty of History and Philosophy of the University of Latvia.[1] After reconstruction and restoration works are finalized at Riga Castle, the museum is scheduled to move back to its permanent premises in 2018.

The Popular Front museum, located in the former headquarters of that organization from the Third Awakening, came under the museum in January 2015.

• 
  Main building on Freedom Boulevard
• 
  From the Freedom Monument, with Diena advert in background
• 
  View from St. Peter's Church