I'd like to tell you about several museums in

Riga

! In general, there are a lot of them, but I particularly liked 2 of them. I'll tell you about these museums.

I was impressed by "

The Latvian War Museum

" and "

The Museum of the Occupation of Latvia

".
Let's talk about them. The Latvian War Museum was established in 1916. It was located in the Powder Tower since 1919.

Construction of a new museum building (near the tower) began in 1937. It was completed by 1940.
However, the new government did not need military museums of the conquered people, so in 1945 the Riga Nakhimov Naval School was opened in the building.
The school also did not last long. The Museum of the Latvian SSR Revolution was opened on its site in 1957. Museum lasted until 1990.
The Latvian War Museum has been reopened in the same place since 1990.
The museum is open till 18 pm, entrance is free.
To be honest, this is one of the most informative war museums I have ever seen. There's a great chronological division of rooms. The museum itself is located on 5 floors.
Let's take a walk through the exhibition.
The museum has a lot of military equipment, and it's not fake!

We strolled through the halls. I was attracted by World Wars.
Here's the exposition of the First World War.

This is the military equipment they had in service.

Here are mortars.

Here's a trench-mortar.

Rooms are very informative with all the exhibits they present.

There are many decorations, which is very pleasing. This is not a diorama, of course. Nevertheless, it allows you to imagine the scene.

This is the Maxim gun of 1910. This is an everlasting weapon.

This is an aftermath of war...

Here's the large exhibition dedicated to the Republic of Latvia.

All the exhibits are not only real, they are also able to function - all the mechanisms work! You can put strikers and beat the tanks. It's made to last forever!

This exposition is dedicated to the beginning of the Second World War.

This is Navy of Latvia...

Here's an armament. Many weapons are still able to function.

This is a picture of St. Peter's Church being aflame.

These decorations help to realize the era.

The museum is really very informative.

All decorations are made at a very high level.

The top floor presents modern history - Latvia in the NATO.

I really liked the museum. 2 hours went to quickly! If you have free time and like military history - I think you will not regret!
Then we went to the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia.
Permanent location of the museum is at the square called Latviešu strēlnieku laukums (near House of the Blackheads). The building is a terrible example of Soviet architecture. Why did they build this horror in the historic center of the beautiful city?

This "masterpiece of architectural thought" was built in 1971. It housed the Museum of the Latvian Red Riflemen, and after 1990 - the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia. However, there was a reconstruction at the time of our visit in Riga and the museum itself was temporarily located in the former US embassy building.

The museum was founded in 1993. The museum houses more than 30,000 documents, photos and materials related to the history of Latvia of the period of 1940-1991. Exhibits are divided into the "Hitler's" and "Soviet" occupations.

Entrance to the museum is free, but since the museum exists on its own finances, visitors are offered to leave a donation - you can give what your soul tells you.

It should be noted that this is the high-tech museum. Each room has interactive panels, plasmas where you can select a specific period and get information.

I liked this museum. It's great when the nation remembers its history and remembers what it had to go through to get its independence.