Dome Square in Old Riga Infrastructure
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The importance of Dome Square during the Awakening was determined mainly by two circumstances – it was located in the immediate vicinity of the building of the Supreme Council of the Latvian SSR, as well as the fact that the building of Latvian Radio is located on the square. Various actions were held on Dome Square, putting forward demands to the Supreme Council, for example, on July 26, 1989, the Latvian Federation of Labor organized a rally attended by 60,000 people, demanding that the Supreme Council adopt the Declaration of Sovereignty. It was at this rally that the then popular slogan “Something in the past, but in free Latvia” was raised.
Dome Square was the main gathering place for the defenders of the barricades in January 1991, protecting the Supreme Council and the Radio House. The defenders of the barricades warmed themselves by the bonfires. They also stayed in the Radio House and the Dome Church. A first aid station was set up in the church, and services were held. In the evenings, popular rock bands performed on an improvised stage in the square. Every year, events commemorating the barricades are held in Dome Square.
Near the Dome Square, at Krāmu Street 3, there is a museum of the 1991 barricades. On January 13, 2018, the stained glass window “With passion for a free Latvia” by artists Krišs and Dzintars Zilgalvji was unveiled in the Dome Church - a dedication to the 1991 barricades and the independence of Latvia.
Used sources and references:
https://enciklopedija.lv/skirklis/184346-1991%C2%A0gada-barik%C4%81des
Barricades. A Latvian Book of Love. Riga: BAF, 2001.
Latvian People's Front at the Barricades. Riga: Association of 1991 Barricades Participants, 2021.
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