Riga's Version of Bremen Town Musicians

By
Bremen Musicians Statue in Riga
Many of you probably have heard the story "The Town Musicians of Bremen" or maybe remember something about a donkey, dog, cat, and rooster standing on top of one another. Riga has a statue depicting this story right next to St. Peter Lutheran Church.


When I first saw it, I remembered the fairy tale from my childhood about these four animals heading out from their farm because they felt old and useless. After conferring with each other, they decide to go to the town of Bremen to become musicians and live in freedom.
Statue in city of Bremen, Germany



While they were walking on the road to the town, they spotted a cottage nearby. When they looked through the window, they saw robbers, counting stolen money. The four friends decided to chase the robbers away, so the dog climbed on the donkey's back, the cat climbed on the dog's back, and the rooster stood on the cat's back. The four animals then proceeded to make so much noise that the robbers ran away, scared to death. The four then decided to move into the abandoned cottage and live out their lives.

Looking out of the Iron Curtain 



The city of Bremen in Germany built a statue to the honor of this story in 1953. Bremen then became the sister city of Riga and donated a similar statue to Riga in 1990. The statue in Riga has a political message to it, however, The statue was dedicated one year before Latvia received freedom from the USSR. The artist of the sculpture has the four friends peering through the Iron Curtain instead of looking through a window like the original story states. The Iron Curtain is depicted by the metal shield surrounding the friends. They are trying to see what life is like on the other side of the communist "wall."



What I find as odd is the location of the statue. It is literally built in the shadow of the huge St. Peter's Church. It seems to be so incongruous that the statue depicting a fairy tale is built in such close proximity of a church. I have no idea why this particular square was chosen for the statue, but there it is.


If you're ever in Riga, you may have to walk all the way around St. Peter's to find the statue. It doesn't seem to be in a very easily spotted location.

Information taken from Bremen Town Musicians - Live Riga

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Home Sweet Home" - Not American Version

By
Image
Older apartment buildings We've lived in St. Petersburg for close to two months and have yet to see "the American dream" - a single family house. Here, everyone lives in an apartment, located either in an old building in the historic city center or in a new high-rise farther out. The high-rise buildings are everywhere you look--in the center of everything, or at the edge of one of the many rivers. We keep hearing about the communist era cement buildings, but we haven't seen many that look too old and dilapidated. They are probably replaced by the new high-rises built since freedom came in the 1990s. We live in one of these new high-rise complexes. Our third-floor apartment is in a 21 story building in a complex of five other buildings (called korpus in Russia). We live in Korpus 3. This complex includes several modern, colorful play areas for the children. It also includes an underground parking garage for the many cars that people own. In fact, the pl
Read more

The Golden Domes of Riga

By
Image
Orthodox Cathedral - Riga  The golden domes of the Nativity of Christ Cathedral stand out above the trees near Old Town Riga. We walk past this large building in the park not far from our apartment.  The domes shine out to the citizens on sunny days. Surrounded by the trees in the park, the walls of the cathedral are not easy to see in summer, but the size is undeniable. Of course, the golden domes tell everyone that this is a Russian Orthodox Church. After living in St. Petersburg, that is easy for us to define with the Russian style architecture. This cathedral was built between 1876 and 1883 when Latvia was a part of the Russian Empire under the reign of Tsar Alexander II.  Main Door This is the largest Orthodox Church in the entire Baltic area. A massive tower rises toward the sky when a visitor approaches the front door.  Entryway painting I visited several orthodox churches during my years in Europe. The thing that they have in common is that the interiors are covered with images
Read more

Why Roosters?

By
Image
Rooster on top of Dom Cathedral  Last week I wrote about cats being on the roof of a building, but today I'm going to share the reason that we have roosters sitting on the tip of churches in Riga. When we first moved to Riga, we noticed that some churches have the usual crosses on the top of them, but others have roosters sitting on top of the steeple. I couldn't recall ever seeing a rooster on top of a steeple. On doing more research, I was wrong to think that other countries don't have these on steeples. I found out that's it's common in European countries to see roosters on top of Lutheran churches. Our Lady of Sorrows Church The more common cross on the top of a steeple is found on Catholic churches in Europe. We have a couple of them in Old Town Riga as well. And, some Catholic churches in Europe have roosters sitting on top of crosses. So, the question popping into my head is why a rooster? After looking at several sources, it seems like ther
Read more