History of Riga - Founding of Riga

Founding of Riga

The Daugava River (Western Dvina, Dúna in Old Norse) has been a trade route since antiquity, part of the Viking's Dvina-Dnieper navigation route via portage to Byzantium. A sheltered natural harbor 15 km upriver from the mouth of the Daugava—the site of today's Riga—has been recorded as an area of settlement, the Duna Urbs, as early as the 2nd century, when ancient sources already refer to Courland as a kingdom. It was subsequently settled by the Livs, an ancient Finnic tribe who had arrived during the 5th and 6th centuries, about the same time that Riga began to develop as a center of Viking trade during the early Middle Ages.

Archeological digs at the sites of Riga Town Hall (Albert) Square (Latvian: Rātslaukums) and at the corner of Peldu and Ūdensvada streets offer glimpses into Riga's residents of the 12th century. These show that Riga was inhabited mainly by the Kurs, Kursified Livs, and Livs of the Daugava river basin. They occupied themselves mainly with crafts in bone, wood, amber, and iron; fishing, animal husbandry, and trading.

The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia (Chronicle) mentions Riga's earliest recorded fortifications upon a promontory, Senais kalns ("ancient hill"), later razed in the 18th century, becoming the site of Riga's Esplanade. It also testifies to Riga having long been a trading center by the 12th century, referring to it as portus antiquus (ancient port), and describes dwellings and warehouses used to store mostly corn, flax, and hides.

There are two competing theories for the origin of the name of Riga. One suggests it is a corrupted borrowing from the Liv ringa meaning loop, referring to the ancient natural harbor formed by the tributary loop of the Daugava and being the earlier, and common, Liv place name for such formations. More likely is that Riga owes its name to its already-established role in commerce between East and West, as a borrowing of the Latvian rija, for warehouse, the "y" sound of the "j" later transcribed and hardened in German to a "g"—notably, Riga is named Rie (no "g") in English geographer Richard Hakluyt's 1589 The Principal Navigations, and the origin of Riga from rija is confirmed by the German historian Dionysius Fabricius (1610): "Riga nomen sortita est suum ab aedificiis vel horreis quorum a litus Dunae magna fuit copia, quas livones sua lingua Rias vocare soliti." (The name Riga is given to itself from the great quantity which were to be found along the banks of the Duna of buildings or granaries which the Livs in their own language are wont to call Rias.)

German traders began visiting Riga and its environs with increasing frequency toward the second half of the 12th century, via Gotland. Bremen merchants shipwrecked at the mouth of the Daugava established a trading outpost near Riga in 1158. The monk Meinhard of Segeberg, a missionary, arrived from Gotland in 1184. Christianity had established itself in Latvia more than a century earlier: Catholicism in western Latvia, with a church built in 1045 by Danish merchants, but arriving as early as 870 with the Swedes; Orthodox Christianity being brought to central and eastern Latvia by missionaries. Many Latvians had been already baptised prior to Meinhard's arrival. Meinhard's mission, nevertheless, was no less than mass conversion of the pagans to Catholicism. He settled among the Livs of the Daugava valley at Ikšķile (German: Uexküll), about 20 km upstream from Riga. With their assistance and promise to convert, he built a castle and church of stone—a method heretofore unknown by the Livs and of great value to them in building stronger fortifications against their own enemies. Hartwig II, Prince-Archbishop of Bremen, was eager to expand Bremen's power and properties northward and consecrated Meinhard as Bishop of Livonia (from the German: Livland) in 1186, with Ikšķile as bishopric. When the Livs failed to renounce their pagan ways, Meinhard grew impatient and plotted to convert them forcibly. The Livs, however, thwarted his attempt to leave for Gotland to gather forces, and Meinhard died in Ikšķile in 1196, having failed his mission.

Hartwig appointed abbot Berthold of Hanover—who may have already traveled to Livonia—as Meinhard's replacement. In 1198 Berthold arrived with a large contingent of crusaders and commenced a campaign of forced Christianization. Latvian legend tells that Berthold galloped ahead of his forces in battle, was surrounded and drew back in fright as someone realizing they have stepped on an asp, at which point the Liv warrior Imants (or, Imauts) struck and speared him to death. Ecclesiastical history faults Berthold's unruly horse for his untimely demise.

The Church mobilized to avenge Berthold's death and defeat of his forces. Pope Innocent III issued a bull declaring a crusade against the Livonians, promising forgiveness of sins to all participants. Hartwig consecrated his nephew, Albert, as Bishop of Livonia in 1199. A year later, Albert landed in Riga with 23 ships and 500 Westphalian crusaders. In 1201 he transferred the seat of the Livonian bishopric from Ikšķile to Riga, extorting by force agreement to do so from the elders of Riga.

Today, 1201 is still celebrated as the founding of Riga by Albert—integral to the "bringer of culture" (German: Kulturträger) myth created by later German and ecclesiastical historians that Germans discovered Livonia and brought civilization and religion to the virulently anti-Christian pagans.