Raiņa Cemetery in northern Riga brings together the graves of poet Rainis and his wife Aspazija with those of generations of the city’s residents and cultural figures.
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At the centre of Raiņa Cemetery, a figure rises above the grave of Rainis, one of Latvia’s best-known poets and playwrights. His wife, the poet and playwright Aspazija, is buried beside him. Their graves anchor a cemetery that contains many other family histories and public lives. It is a place of mourning as well as cultural memory; keep to paths and give people tending graves room and privacy.
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UpgradeQuick facts
- Burials for people outside religious congregations began here in 1925.
- The cemetery was named for the poet Rainis after his burial in 1929.
- Rainis’s 1935 grave monument was created by Kārlis Zemdega and architect Pēteris Ārends.
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