Location:

University of Latvia Raina blvd. 19 LV-1586 Riga Latvia Tel. 371 2 228928 Fax 371 7 820113 The conference will be organised on the premises of the University of Latvia, in the heart of the old city of Riga. Riga is already a venue for cultural events on an international scale, but in 2014 it will become the cultural epicentre of Europe. During its year as European Capital of Culture, hundreds of special events will take place - culture in the very broadest sense. 365 days a year, with a new understanding of culture as a positive force of change in people's lives. This year, cultural personalities are already warming up for Riga as European Capital of Culture 2014 with a variety of interesting events. The big hall of the Latvian University, Riga. The small hall of the Latvian University, Riga. Two halls that will be reserved for the conference in addition with smaller conference rooms.

Presentation of the city of Riga

The history of Riga, the capital of Latvia, begins as early as the 2nd century with a settlement, the Duna urbs, at a natural harbor not far upriver from the mouth of the Daugava River. Later settled by Livs and Kurs, it was already an established trade center in the early Middle Ages along the Dvina-Dnieper trade route to Byzantium. Christianity had come to Latvia as early as the 9th century, but it was the arrival of the Crusades at the end of the 12th century which brought the Germans and forcible conversion to Christianity; the German hegemony instituted over the Baltics lasted until independence - and is still preserved today in Riga's Jugendstil (German Art Nouveau) architecture. From the 13th century to the birth of nationalism in the 19th and independence in the 20th, Latvia's and Riga's history are intertwined, a chronicle of the rise and fall of surrounding foreign powers over the Latvians and their territory. As a member of the Hanseatic League, Riga's prosperity grew throughout the 13th-15th centuries with Riga to become a major center of commerce and later, industry, of whatever empire it found itself subject of. Today, Riga and its environs are home to close to half of Latvia's inhabitants. UNESCO has declared Riga's historical center a World Heritage site in recognition of its Art Nouveau architecture, widely considered the greatest collection in Europe, and for its 19th-century buildings in wood. DOCUMENT PRESENTED FROM WIKIPEDIA