Riga - the hottest city in the north!

When the Riga Summit convenes on November 28-29 at least 26 heads of state will gather, filling this 800-year old Baltic city by the bay with more presidents, prime ministers and protocol per square kilometer then it has ever seen in its history.

But they will not be the first. Viking chieftains and European kings, princes, dukes, barons and bishops have been passing through Riga for over a thousand years. The German Crusaders liked it so much they started building castles and churches, and founded the city of Riga in 1201.  The moment the Hanseatic League was formed, Riga became one of its most important members.

Sweden’s Charles XII and Russia’s Peter the Great fought over it, and Czar Nicholas II dropped in at the turn of the century. Even Lenin paid a visit before starting his revolution (which led to the overthrow of Nicholas II). During Latvia’s first period of independence after World War I, several European heads of state stopped by, including one former (Herbert Hoover) and one future (John F. Kennedy) US President. 

With the 1991 restoration of Latvia’s independence, Riga again began to attract Western heads of state such as Bill Clinton, George Bush, Jacques Chirac, Gerhard Shroeder and Dan Quayle. Religious figures such as Pope John Paul II, the Dalai Llama and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II have all brought their blessings.  Riga remains an attraction for royalty and in recent years has attracted Prince Charles, Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and several members of the Swedish royal family. 

Some say that US President George Bush liked it here so much in 2005 that he decided to bring 25 other NATO heads of state back with him for the Riga Summit in 2006.
 
And while Latvia has no royalty of its own, many look upon singer Marija Naumova as a queen in her own right, since as ‘Marie N’ she was crowned Eurovision champion in 2002, bringing this spectacular song contest to Riga in 2003.