Andrejsala in the latter half of the 1800s, in a map by M. Siliņš "Rīga and Surroundings". Courtesy of the Museum of the History of Rīga and Navigation.
A major study of the history of the Rīga Commercial Port's district was completed in 2008, led by Jaunrīgas attīstības uzņēmums and contributed to by several other partners. The result is a comprehensive overview of the milestones of all historical periods, starting from when a river's island came into being and ending with the most recent developments. Andrejsala, as an important urban redevelopment project, requires precise and sensitive knowledge of the area's architectural, cultural and industrial heritage, especially since some of it remains standing and operating to date. One way to do that is by collecting and archiving various accounts that tell the story of this part of central Rīga.
Exhibited for one week as Andrejsala: Transformation through Time, the research project's neatly and interestingly assembled material was seen by those visiting the local Anchor Building. Now the images and written content from the exhibition is also available online in the format of a four-part presentation.
Part I: Andrejsala's Origins – River-engineering of the Daugava – Infrastructure – Roads (pps, ~5 MB)
Part II: Land Use – Interwar Period – 2nd World War – Andrejsala after 2nd World War (pps, ~8 MB)
Part III: Moorage and Waterways – Passenger Riverboat Traffic – Commercial Port's Expansion – Herring Handling Facility – Rīga Port's Elevators (pps, ~13 MB)
Part IV: Railway and Rīga-Krasta Station – Union's Cold-storage Warehouse – Andrejsala's Power Station (pps, ~12 MB)
We're especially pleased to have cooperated with such resourceful project partners as historians Ingrīda Miklāva and Aigars Miklāvs, the Museum of the History of Rīga and Navigation, Latvenergo's Power Generation Museum and the Museum of Latvijas dzelzceļš. Some of the material was acquired thanks to the Latvian National Library and the archive of the Rīga City Council's City Development Department.