Dannenšterna nams

Dannenšterna nams, the Dannenstern House, has stood in Riga's Old Town since 1696. Ernst Metsue von Dannenstern, a Dutch merchant whose fleet counted about 150 ships, had it built. Rupert Bindenschu, the German-born city architect of the day, drew its design. When it went up, it was the largest detached house in the whole city.

When you look up, the limestone facade carries tall Corinthian pilasters to its full height. The two elaborate entrance portals are the work of the sculptor Dietrich Walter. The main building rises two storeys over a basement, with an attic and five attic floors built into the roof. Behind the street front stand two courtyard buildings, and an underpass links all three into a single complex. Latvia protects it as a monument of national significance, and it ranks among the country's leading Baroque works.

Its facade decoration still dates from the late seventeenth century, with some late twentieth-century renewal. Dutch, German, Swedish and Latvian strands all meet in its stone. And inside, fragments of a medieval building survive, parts of Riga older than the Baroque shell around them.