Photos

Photo is taken in the Museum of the River Daugava, situated not far from Riga on Dole Island (the largest in the Daugava River) in the former Dole baronial estate (Doles manor was built at 1631 and the first owner was Sweden army colonel Nikolauss Deetrih Sperreuter). The museum building is situated on the bank of the Daugava, in parkland created in 1776. The museum tells the story of the inhabitants of an old settlement on the bank of the River Daugava and illustrates the history of the Daugava waterway - the Daugava dams, hydroelectric power stations, crossings and bridges, and floods of the Daugava that form a substantial part of the river's history. Antiquities are seen in the archaeological exposition which reflects material and mental culture’s development of the inhabitants of a lower part of the Daugava. It also shows the changes which took place in a very long period of time - from the oldest investigated settlement in Latvia (9th millennium BC) till the most mighty craft and trade centre in the Middle Ages in Latvia (2nd millennium BC - 12th century); from the historical monument of outstanding Bronze Age (2nd -1st millennium BC) till the first stone wall castles in the Baltics (1186).

The Daugava is an ancient transit way which connected Eastern Europe with Western Europe. Ships of Vikings, rafts caravans, maps and the details of ancient armament - these are emphases which characterize the importance of Daugava waterway and Riga harbor and at the same time witness about monopolrights for the Daugava and Riga. Lime and brick kilns had been sited on the banks of the Daugava for hundreds of years which production was brought to Riga and other places. In its turn till the very beginning of the 20th century rafts were the most convenient way for timber transportation.

The Dole Park features two hundred-year-old oaks, open-air fishermen courtyard complex - living house, granary, barn and bathhouse with a equipment for catching lamprey and salmon, and a collection of fishing tackle, household objects and tools dating from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Not far from the museum is the Dole dolomite cliff. The territory is used by rare birds for nesting during the winter.