The beautiful Old Town is less than a mile long. You can go everywhere on foot. All the streets are made of cobblestones and narrow.
Every building looks very old.
The entire Old Town is just like one giant maze. An ancient settlement of the Livs where the Ridzene River joins the Western Dvina, Riga was founded in 1201 by Bishop Albert I of Livonia, who had landed at the mouth of the Western Dvina two years earlier with 23 ships of crusaders. Riga joined the Hanseatic League in 1282 and became one of the most important centres of trade on the Baltic. In 1621 Gustavus II Adolphus of Sweden captured Riga, but both Poles and Swedes granted Riga autonomy of government. In 1709-10 the Russians took Riga, and Sweden formally ceded the city by the Treaty of Nystad in 1721.