Riga, Archdiocese of

RIGA, ARCHDIOCESE of. - Archdiocese and capital city of Latvia on the banks of the Daugava.

It has an area of 64,000 sq. km, with a population of 1,950,502 inhabitants, of whom 476,963 are Catholics; it has 126 parishes and 166 churches; it has 1 seminary (Ann. Pont. 1952, p. 338).

On the present state of devastation of the archdiocese V. LETTONIA.

Founded in 1201 by Bishop Alberto of Livonia, it was immediately made an episcopal see and in 1255 an archiepiscopal see; after declining in 1522 owing to the transition to Protestantism, it was re-established on 22 Sept. 1918, separating it from the archdiocese of Mohilev. By decree of the S. Congr. Concistoriale of 25 Oct. 1923 it was erected into an archbishopric, and Pope Pio XI, by the apostolic constitution Plurimum sane of 8 May 1937, erected it into a metropolitan see, assigning to it as suffragan the diocese of Liepaja, detached from the archdiocese of R. by the apostolic constitution Aeternam animarum salus of 8 May 1937, and raising the Cathedral to metropolitan dignity.

tate), founded in 1919; it has 11 faculties; the University Library contains more than 200,000 vols.; there is also the State Library (1919), with about 500,000 vols., and the civic library (1524), with many manuscripts and incunabula. There are also the Civic Art Museum (1816) and the Historical Museum (1920), with archaeological, ethnographic, historical, and numismatic material.