The former building of the National Library of Latvia served as the main venue of the Survival K(n)it 7 festival.
The building was designed by Ernests Pole (1872-1914) and constructed in 1910 by the commission of the Treasury of Riga Craftsmen Savings Bank. It is an elegant example of neoclassicism with its charming display of different order pilasters and pillars, classic tiles, festoons and other architectonic and ornamental details.
Before the main branch of the National Library of Latvia was relocated to this building in 1956, it was occupied by several organizations. In the 1920s, the first café in Riga with rotating dance floors opened there. Later on it housed editorial offices of several magazines, the Latvian Conversation Dictionary, as well as headquarters of industrial and trade companies, craftsmen’s workshops and a hotel. During the German occupation in World War II, it was the People’s Bank, but in 1947 it became the Museum of the Revolution.
It hosted the National Library of Latvia from 1956 to 2014, however, it stopped being actively used afterwards.
Read more