Švarcmuiža

Schwartzhof stands in Riga’s Āgenskalns district, on the site of a manor beside the former Daugava riverbank. The present house shows Neorenaissance details, including pediments, pilasters, cornices and entablatures.

The estate began in the seventeenth century for Heinrihs Hāgens, president of the Riga Consistory. A 1657 map from Swedish Vidzeme marks Hagenshof among the area’s manor houses. In 1792, the property became the Schwarz family’s summer residence after a Bērens family member married Riga mayor Adam Heinrich Schwarz. Johann Georg Hamann, a philosopher and writer, also lived there for a time. War destroyed the building in 1812, while later land sales helped transform the estate into Āgenskalns. By 1853, almost three hundred homeowners occupied former manor land, and architect M. Holst built the current house at the estate’s former centre.

The building later served as a German primary school and Soviet military offices before becoming an archive restoration facility. Restorations in 1872, 1997 and 2017 shaped the house visible today. Its long passage from summer residence to school and archive mirrors Riga’s changing neighbourhoods.