Institute of Art History of the Latvian Academy of Art Anna Ancāne ...

gabled houses (about 200) include the objects without later rebuilding,
i.e., with the late 17 th century façade compositions, floor division,
principles of proportions. The selected visual material is complemented
with the information found in archival materials on the owners of
building plots during the 17 th century.
There was a certain social hierarchy at work in the urban topography, so
the pace of modernisation was different. Districts inhabited by the richest
citizens were most damaged by fire and also filled with top-modern
buildings. That is why in some districts – around the Town Hall, at
Grēcinieku, Audēju, Kungu, Mārstaļu, Peldu Streets and between
ramparts – side-gabled houses predominated much over front-gabled
houses. Parts of Riga not damaged by fire retained the silhouettes of
front-gabled houses for a longer period, for example, at Smilšu, Aldaru,
Lielā and Mazā Pils, Zirgu (up to Mazā Kalēju Street), Tirgoņu, Jaunavu,
partly Miesnieku, Kaļķu Streets up to Kalēju Street. But, as time passed,
dwelling houses with cornices parallel to the street increased in numbers
there as well. Changes escalated in the last decade of the 17 th century –
around the turn of the century side-gabled houses outnumbered frontgabled
houses.
V. ARCHITECTURAL FINISH AND DÉCOR OF RIGA’S
BUILDINGS IN THE 2 ND HALF OF THE 17 TH CENTURY
V. 1. Façade structure and surface finish
Walls of patrician houses were divided by the colossal order pilasters and
other order elements; they were the main bearers of architectural and
decorative weight (Reutern’s House and Dannenstern’s House, 8
Miesnieku Street). The lack of order elements on other facades was
compensated with polychrome painting and imitations of pilasters or
other details. Polychrome corner rustication, frames of window openings
and decorative spandrel panels between windows also became popular.
Wall finish with ashlar blocks was quite rarely found in Riga and only
related to patrician houses; more wide-spread solution was a plastered
façade combined with stone carvings. The question whether polychrome
finish had existed on the natural stone facades of patrician houses
requires further research and comparison with the finish of similar
building types in the Netherlands and other Northern European countries.
Finish of natural ashlar blocks had been considered self-sufficient in
Riga; at 26 Jauniela the façade finish consists of two different kinds of
stone. In the finish of middle-class citizens’ houses, the plaster was
coloured to imitate the pink-rosy tone of shelly dolomite (at 10 Audēju
Street, 4 Zirgu Street, 26 Mārstaļu Street and 3/5 Jēkaba Street). Common
colour combinations were white-black and white-black-red.
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