Our Lady of Sorrows Church as seen from the 11th November Embankment in central Riga, Latvia. August 7, 2022
Our Lady of Sorrows Church is a Roman Catholic church was built 1783-1785, rebuilt 1859-1860 (according to other data 1856-1859). Pseudo-Romanesque style as a three-bay building with cylindrical vaults, covered with a gabled tin roof. When Emperor Joseph II of the Holy Roman Empire visited Riga in 1780, he saw a tiny-sized Catholic chapel and its poor facilities, and in a conversation with Catherine II of Russia he promised to defend and support in every way the Catholic intention to build a new stone church in Riga. Such permission was soon granted. In addition, the Emperor, together with his mother Maria Theresa, donated to the building of the church. It was the first Catholic church in Livonia after the Reformation and was dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows, symbolising the oppressed Catholicism in the region.
Our Lady of Sorrows Church as seen from the 11th November Embankment in central Riga, Latvia. August 7, 2022
Our Lady of Sorrows Church is a Roman Catholic church was built 1783-1785, rebuilt 1859-1860 (according to other data 1856-1859). Pseudo-Romanesque style as a three-bay building with cylindrical vaults, covered with a gabled tin roof. When Emperor Joseph II of the Holy Roman Empire visited Riga in 1780, he saw a tiny-sized Catholic chapel and its poor facilities, and in a conversation with Catherine II of Russia he promised to defend and support in every way the Catholic intention to build a new stone church in Riga. Such permission was soon granted. In addition, the Emperor, together with his mother Maria Theresa, donated to the building of the church. It was the first Catholic church in Livonia after the Reformation and was dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows, symbolising the oppressed Catholicism in the region.