Off the wire
• Earth's temperature dropped during solar eclipse: study  • ASEAN member states must embrace digital connectivity: Singapore's minister  • Turkey curbs coup risk by relocating military bases out of key cities  • Extremists in British prisons to be segregated to tackle radicalization  • Rwanda eyes big opportunities from central African bloc: miniser  • British FTSE 100 down 0.44 pct on Monday  • Spanish stock market rises 0.21 pct, closes at 8,468 points  • Georgia foils a terrorist plot targeting gas pipeline  • S. Africa's largest steel maker fined for price-fixing  • Boko Haram "spiritual leader" arrested in Nigeria  
You are here: 　 Home

Latvian president's office returns to renovated Riga Castle

Xinhua, August 23, 2016 Adjust font size:

The office of the Latvian president on Monday relocated to Riga Castle, which reopened after four years of renovation and a devastating fire, the president's spokesperson informed.

The return of the president's office to the medieval castle on the banks of the River Daugava in Riga Old City was marked with a ceremony in which the president's standard was lowered at the House of Blackheads, which has been serving as the temporary office of incumbent President Raimonds Vejonis and his predecessor Andris Berzins, and raised on the Tower of the Holy Ghost at Riga Castle.

President Vejonis, his staff and Latvian ex-presidents Guntis Ulmanis, Valdis Zatlers and Andris Berzins took a tour of the renovated castle, which first became the Latvian president' s official residence back in 1922.

"I am truly glad that we can gradually return to the castle," Vejonis said, adding that the castle is coming to life again.

"Life is returning to the castle. Today, the president and his office are relocating to this part of the castle, but the renovation works, of course, will continue in hopes that they will be completed by 2018, the centenary of the Latvian state," said Vejonis.

Vejonis is scheduled to welcome his Baltic colleagues, Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves and Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, as well as U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, in Riga Castle on Tuesday.

Latvia's previous president Andris Berzins left Riga Castle and relocated to the House of Blackheads as his temporary office four years ago as renovation got under way at the castle.

The renovation process, however, took considerably more time than initially expected after a major fire ripped through the building on June 20, 2013, seriously damaging the historical edifice. Enditem