Church of St. James
Svēta Jēkaba katedrāle, St. Jacob's Church, Cathedral of St. James
Latvia, Riga
Brick Gothic monument, the fourth largest church in Riga, the main Catholic church in Latvia, the Cathedral of the Archdiocese of Riga. For several centuries (beginning with the period of Swedish rule and ending in the mid-1920s) it was a cathedral Lutheran church.
From the point of view of architectural affiliation, the building is an example of the transition period from Romantic to Gothic. For the first time, a church on this site, located outside the medieval city, was mentioned in 1225. This year is engraved on the central western façade of the church as the estimated year of construction. Thirty years later, in 1255, in the immediate vicinity of the main church of the Riga suburbs (which was originally the church of St. James), a monastery was built for the nuns of the Cistercian order.
To conduct services, the church premises were initially used by the monks-knights of the Livonian Order, a military-religious organization, which for more than two and a half centuries, in accordance with the system of medieval hierarchical relations, was the feudal lord of Riga. In parallel with the members of the Livonian Order, divine services are held in the church for Cistercian nuns from the neighboring monastery of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who were popularly called “singing virgins”.
The history of the church was as complex as the history of Riga itself.
Rural church outside Riga; city temple; the full-scale destruction of the interior during the Reformation in 1524, at the height of the anti-Catholic unrest of the church; the main church of the first Lutheran community in Livonia; transfer to the society of the Jesuits; again the destruction of church utensils and cultural objects and the beating of clergy during the days of protests against the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in Riga; the annexation of Riga to Sweden as the capital of Livonia, the church became a royal Lutheran, once again changing its confessional affiliation, sermons during the services were also read in Swedish, Finnish and Estonian;
Characteristic episode.
In 1656, when the Russian army of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich approached Riga from Kobronshanets, the shelling of the city began, as a result of which several shells hit the Yakovlev Church, two of which, in memory of the siege of Riga, were embedded in the central facade, and two more - in the altar of the church. Later, those besieging the city retreated, because the idea of taking the city to starvation failed due to the military assistance that arrived from the Gulf of Riga, provided in time by King Charles X Gustav, and also because of bad weather and looting of suburban peasants who systematically robbed Russian carts.
After the Swedes in 1756, a pointed octagonal pyramidal spire was added to the main building of the temple, based on a baroque foundation. On June 2, 1756, a traditional rooster-weather vane was erected on the spire of the tower, which, in general, has successfully survived to this day.
From 1918 to 1923, there were ongoing disputes about how the church premises should be used and, in the end, to whom it should belong in the new conditions. At the same time, the church authorities of the newly proclaimed republic could not determine in any way which of the largest medieval churches in Riga should be transferred to the Latvian Catholics, who were left “homeless”. As a result, after long heated discussions, it was decided to transfer the Yakovlev Church to the jurisdiction of the Catholic Archbishop. The new consecration of the church took place on May 3, 1924, and the next day a mass was celebrated in it according to the Catholic model. Thus, on May 4, 1924, the archbishop of the Catholic Church of Latvia, Anthony Springovich, officially took office.
It was after the fateful events of May 1924, when the church changed its religion for the fourth (and so far for the last) time, it was decided to rebuild the temple from the inside in order to adapt it to the Catholic sacral concept. Then the side church choirs were demolished, but four confessionals were built of wood, a central altar and three additional side altars, made in the neo-Gothic style, appeared.
A significant event that went down not only in the history of the St. James Church in Riga, but also in the history of the entire Catholic Latvia, took place on September 8, 1993: the church was visited by Pope John Paul II.
The height of the church tower together with the spire reaches 80 meters. In the interior, one can find a floral ornament, rare for the church canon of Gothic sculptural decoration, decorating the capitals in the church choirs.
In turn, the capitals crown small columns, and in general, such interior components are unusual for medieval church sculpture in Riga.
One of the most remarkable elements of the interior of the Riga Church of St. James the Apostle can rightfully be considered an Empire-style pulpit. In general, the interior of the Church of Jacob is distinguished by a bizarre mixture of various architectural styles that prevailed in different eras, while the outside of the church is relatively uniform. As for the pulpit, it was made of a rare breed of mahogany; intarsia with rich floral ornaments and exquisite arabesques are placed around the area of the pulpit.
At the beginning of the 20th century, some images of early interior design were discovered. In particular, we are talking about a successful find - the Crucifixion of Triumph, which was discovered in 1922 in the attic of the church.
It is difficult to establish the exact time of the emergence of an exclusive sample of the Catholic cult, but the researchers agreed on an extended period from 1380 to 1420 - in the interval between these years, the Crucifix of Triumph was created. This crucifix is considered to be one of the oldest sculptural works on the territory of modern Latvia.
Much later, during the repair work carried out in the Yakovlev Church in 1983, an ensemble of tombstones unique in Latvia was discovered under the floor. After the scientists conducted a study of this ensemble, the floor was covered with sand, and on top it was laid with ceramic tiles, which serve as a covering for the church floor to this day.
