Starting March 21, a new, modern exhibition on Latvian history titled “Streaming Time” is displayed at the Latvian National Museum of History (LNMH) in Riga Castle. It is the first of several new exhibitions being created at the museum’s historic home.
LNMH Director Dr. hist. Toms Ķikuts emphasizes: “The exhibition “Streaming Time” invites visitors on a journey through the eternal and ever-changing waters to see that today’s “we” and yesterday’s “they” are in the same boat, and the distance between us and the people of the past is by no means insurmountable. In this exhibition, we have highlighted people’s desire and ability to cooperate. Throughout history, people have come together in armies and congregations, families and societies, movements and parties to achieve common goals. The importance of communities has not diminished even today. They remain a vital driving force behind social development and change.”
The exhibition “Streaming Time” is located on the 4th floor of the castle, covering an area of 620 square meters. Historical artifacts and engaging digital content, combined in a unique design, tell the story of the land of Latvia and its people from the earliest times to the present day. The focus is on people and society—their relationships, values, and sense of belonging. Spanning a diverse timeline of approximately 12,500 years, the exhibition highlights the communities characteristic of each era, demonstrating that social belonging is both an enduring and yet historically changing phenomenon. The exhibition’s nine thematic sections demonstrate that, although the theme of human belonging runs through them all, their content varies—from skills and technologies to religious communities, from class hierarchies to the formation of civic belonging and Latvian identity in the new nation.
The narrative begins with a symbolic depiction of rippling water and an ancient dugout canoe, symbolizing both the eternal flow of existence and continuity and succession. In the section “Inventive Humans” the tools, jewellery, and the skilful use of local and imported resources attest to the ability of ancient communities to collaborate, transform, and refine the material world, endowing it with both functional and aesthetic qualities. “People of the Hillforts” presents hillforts and their inhabitants as the centre of life for Iron Age communities. The clothing, jewellery, and various objects of prestige and status from this era, as well as burial traditions, reflect both a person’s affiliation with a particular ethnic or cultural group and their place in the social and power hierarchy. The establishment of the urban model and way of life characteristic of medieval Western Europe in the territory of Latvia during the Livonian period is discussed in the section “City Walls Unite” —in which the city is presented both as a specially designed space and as a community that protects its interests and maintains a certain social order through traditions. Meanwhile, the section “Together in the Congregation” highlights several religious communities as distinct and independent forms of community, showcasing the imprints left by these various religions and denominations on cultural history.
The section “Born into One’s Class” presents a class-based society—a specific framework for community organization—in which a person’s social background had a decisive influence on the course of his life. The focus is on the relationships between peasants and landowners during the era of serfdom, as well as the coexistence of these different worlds and their interactions within the manor. The section “Spreading New Ideas” covers the period of modernization at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, highlighting how, in an era of major political, social, and cultural movements, people were able for the first time to choose for themselves the ideas to follow in order to change the existing order. The theme “Becoming a Citizen” explores the idea of the Latvian state and the formation of its citizenry as a new historical phenomenon that, step by step, allowed for the consolidation of the Latvian state and a sense of belonging to it, showcasing the spectrum of ideas regarding the formation and consolidation of national and civic identity — from the earliest concepts of Latvian statehood to the emergence of “Latvianness” in all spheres of life.
The eighth theme, “Totalitarian Stranglehold”, explores the period of Latvia’s occupation. At its core is the story of the occupying power’s efforts to create the desired community—the “Soviet man”—and of those who thought differently—individuals and groups who opposed or attempted to exist outside the ideological framework imposed by totalitarianism. The exhibition’s concluding section, “Return to Europe”, tells the story of the restoration of Latvian statehood and the aspiration to once again belong to democratic Europe and the Western world. The path to belonging to this community of values led both through the hopes and ideals of the Awakening and the socio-economic and political upheavals of the 1990s.
The display stands for these nine thematic sections are designed in the shape of flowing lines, symbolically evoking the ebb and stream of time, while their arrangement in the space purposefully guides visitors along the meandering course of a river. The display cases, pedestals, graphic surfaces, and multimedia elements incorporated into the stands offer diverse functionality. The shapes of the stands are also transformed into graphic symbols, the collective of which forms the visual identity of the exhibition.
The development of the concept and content for the exhibition “Streaming Time,” which involved specialists from various fields of the Latvian National Museum of History—researchers, curators, conservators, and others—was initiated in 2021 under the leadership of the museum’s current director, Dr. hist. Toms Ķikuts. The exhibition concept competition and design project were carried out in 2023; the technical design for the exhibition was developed in 2024; and in 2025, a procurement process for the exhibition’s construction took place, and its installation began. The exhibition was created through the museum’s collaboration with a wide range of partners: under the leadership of architect Didzis Jaunzems, SIA “DJA” (Ltd.) developed the exhibition design, while SIA “SOLAVI” (Ltd.) and SIA “AD PRODUCTION” (Ltd.) handled the production and installation of the exhibition, as well as the development of multimedia content.
In total, more than 1,500 historical artifacts have been selected for the exhibition from the extensive collection of the LNMH. Among them are particularly rare and unique exhibits, including the oldest Stone Age flint tools, Neolithic clay figurines—depictions of people and their faces, most likely created for ritual purposes, the oldest known iron sword in Latvia to date, reconstructions of jewellery and clothing from Latvia’s ancient tribes—the Curonians, Semigallians, Latgalians, Selonians, Livonians, and Vends—regalia of various craft guilds, and artifacts that reflect the influence of religious communities on Latvia’s cultural history, including a particularly luxurious copy of the Bible translated into Latvian by Ernst Glik and published in Riga in 1694, weapons from the 1905 revolution, items crafted by Latvian riflemen on the front lines, Gauja pearls that World War II refugees took with them as mementos from Latvia, the red-white-red flag carried by Konstantīns Pupurs, a member of the “Helsinki–86” group, on June 14, 1988, at the Freedom Monument; a souvenir copy of the “Godmanis stove,” as it is popularly known; and many others. More than ten reconstructions of historical clothing have been created for the exhibition, based on careful research of sources. Some of the items selected for this exhibition have been restored and are on public display for the first time.
In fulfilling its mission—to promote, in the interests of the Latvian state and people, the spiritual and material cultural heritage of Latvia and the world from the earliest times to the present day—the museum has created the exhibition “Streaming Time” to be engaging and interesting for both the general public in Latvia and visitors and tourists from abroad. Information about the exhibits is available in Latvian and English. An audio guide has also been developed. The LNMH Riga Castle Shop at Pils laukums 3 also offers a catalogue of the “Flowing Through Time” exhibition in Latvian and English, as well as themed souvenirs created specifically for the new exhibition.
The creation of the museum’s exhibitions is supported by co-financing from European Union funds secured by the Ministry of Culture, allocated to preserve, protect, and develop the unique cultural monuments of national significance, promoting accessibility to the sites and expanding the innovative use of the site as a sustainable resource to improve the quality of life and strengthen the local community.
A total of 1,276,672 euros has been invested in the implementation of the project “Resumption of Operations of the Latvian National Museum of History at Riga Castle and Installation of Exhibits,” of which 1,085,172 euros comes from the European Regional Development Fund.
With the opening of the first new exhibition, the museum will once again be open to visitors from Tuesday through Sunday (Tuesday–Thursday 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m., Friday 10:00 a.m.–8:00 p.m., Saturday and Sunday 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.), offering the opportunity to view both the new exhibition and the restored Riga Castle.
At the same time, the LNMH notes that a comprehensive permanent exhibition on Latvian history can only be established after the museum’s premises in the Riga Castle have been fully restored and renovated.
Please note that photography and filming may take place during museum events at Riga Castle for the purpose of promoting the museum’s activities. If a visitor does not wish to be photographed or filmed, they must inform the museum’s information centre on the 1st floor prior to the event.
Contact person:
Astrīda Burbicka,
Head of the Education and Communication Department at the LNMH,
tel.: +371 67221357, +371 26341556, e-mail: astrida.burbicka@lnvm.gov.lv
(Translated with the help of DeepL Translate)
