# Rīgas Pils

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Canonical page: https://mytuur.com/en/city/riga/spot/rigas-pils/

Content updated: 2026-06-22

Riga Castle stands on the banks of the River Daugava in Riga, Latvia, with a plain exterior shaped by military use and repeated rebuilding. Founded in 1330, the fortress grew around a rectangular courtyard, four corner towers, and later two round towers that marked a change in military architecture.

Conflicts repeatedly altered its role and structure. Riga residents destroyed the first castle in the late fifteenth century, while the Livonian Order built a replacement beside the former Convent of the Holy Spirit. Reconstruction finished in 1515, and later Swedish and Russian administrations used the rooms for government, courts, and official residences. Since 1922, the building has served as the Latvian president’s residence, while the Latvian National Museum of History occupies its reconstructed oldest wing.

Inside, vaulted cellars, a chapel, a refectory, and the Lead Tower reveal different layers of the building’s past. Narrow upper windows once served as cannon openings, and underground passageways run beneath the spacious basement. A fire in June 2013 destroyed about 3,200 square metres, including much of the roof and attic, but museum collections survived. Furniture reportedly moves by itself in the castle, giving its military walls one lingering ghost story.

- City: [Riga](https://mytuur.com/en/city/riga/)

## Photos

- ![](https://mytuur-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/image_RigaCastle_68750b94622f9d68e0bc0391_0.jpg) — [Image: wikimedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Castillo_de_Riga,_Letonia,_2012-08-07,_DD_04.JPG)
- ![](https://mytuur-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/image_RigaCastle_68750b94622f9d68e0bc0391_1.jpg) — [Image: wikimedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Riga_Castle_Fire.JPG)
- ![](https://mytuur-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/image_RigaCastle_68750b94622f9d68e0bc0391_2.jpg) — [Image: wikimedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rigas_pils_Broce.jpg)
- ![](https://mytuur-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/image_RigaCastle_68750b94622f9d68e0bc0391_3.jpg) — [Image: wikimedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Рыжскія_замалёўкі_16.jpg)
- ![](https://mytuur-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/image_RigaCastle_68750b94622f9d68e0bc0391_4.jpg) — [Image: wikimedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Location_map_Latvia_Riga.png)

Spots like this one are the stops myTuur strings into tours through Riga. In the app, each story begins where you stand: walk up to a spot and it starts, read it on screen or listen as you go, then follow the route to the next one.

## What is myTuur?

myTuur is a free city-guide app. Its tours are built from spots, and each spot carries a story that starts when you get there, to read or to listen to as you like.