On a flight from Riga to Vienna, I ended up sitting next to someone who works at the National Library in Riga, and we got talking about the building. She described it as something every Latvian should immediately recognize in terms of symbolism, this idea of knowledge, culture, and identity “rising” again. I found that pretty striking and have been thinking about it since.
I finally got around to looking into it a bit more, and I’m curious: does it really feel that universally understood in Latvia, or is that more of an ideal than reality?
Also, she insisted I watch Succession, which I just finished, and yeah, she was absolutely right. Amazing show. So if by some miracle you see this: thanks, that recommendation landed.
Kind of funny contrast too: thinking about a building meant to represent knowledge and cultural continuity, and then watching a show that’s basically about power, legacy, and dysfunction.
Would be interesting to hear how people here actually see the library: symbolically or just as a building.
https://i.redd.it/6qe2n7o25sxg1.jpeg
Posted by limpxaxa
6 Comments
I’m gen X – for me it is a symbolic building – we were waiting for it such a long time. The architect made the first sketch in 1989 and it was on the TV news. And then, the building itself was built from 2008 to 2013 and opened in 2014.
Yeah, mostly! For us Latvians it really is one of our symbols/symbolic buildings, if I remember right the building is also called the glass mountain based on the glass mountain from a old theatre play written by a very important Latvian writer before ww1 , it had hidden symbolism that Latvia needs to be free. It was something like that or I just hallucinated everything
Well, not everybody thinks about the symbolism probably, but with people who are generally more inclined to think about that kind of stuff, it is definitely recognisable, mainly because of the name. The castle of light or Gaismas Pils was named after a very famous choir song (look it up on youtube, preferably from Dziesmu Svētki aka the song and dance festival) and the song’s lyrics and overall feeling (and it being so popular in the festival) invokes these themes a lot. So the building being named that kind of inherits the symbolism from the song
It’s from a tale about glass mountain that protagonist has to climb. Zelta Zirgs – golden horse.
It is universally understood, there’s even a pretty popular and important song about it. Some people might not be able to tell you the specifics about the legend/poem, but they do know the idea of the castle sinking and then rising up when Latvia regains freedom. The song was even banned from being performed at the Latvian Song and Dance festival during occupation, it’s that patriotic and important. I’d recommend watching a performance on Youtube.
As for the library itself, opinions seem to be a little more split 😀 I’ve heard thoughts from people who hate it and people who adore it. Personally, I love it and think it’s gorgeous, but one of my relatives who grew up in Riga thinks it’s ugly and a stain on the city. In her opinion, it looks out of place and it’s also expensive and difficult to clean, thousands of taxes are spent on cleaning that thing. I’ve heard similar sentiments from other people too, but most people seem to like it or not mind it.
Here’s some more information about the song in English – https://thesilvergrove.weebly.com/32-gaismas-pils-the-castle-of-light-augscaronup.html
I remember some people saying it depicts the latvian economy (especially as it was built after the 2008 recession)