St. James’s Cathedral is Riga’s Catholic cathedral, a medieval church whose congregations and uses changed through the Reformation, Swedish rule and Latvian independence. Its slender tower, old masonry and renewed bell hold traces of that history.
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St. James’s Cathedral has a slender tower and a long history of changing congregations. Across the street from Latvia’s parliament, this Catholic cathedral has also served Lutheran communities, Jesuits and, briefly, a wartime storehouse. Its story makes visible the way political power and religious life have repeatedly met in Riga.
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- The cathedral records its first documentary mention in 1225.
- St. James’s was assigned as the Catholic bishop’s cathedral in 1923.
- A new tower bell was consecrated in 2001 after a community fundraising effort.
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