Āgenskalns - a bit of history

Nometņu Street. Photo: Zanda Milzarāja

By starting with a visit to the Agenskalns district, you can acquaint yourself with the unique mood of Pārdaugava and its many small, well paved and unpaved alleys and streets.

These little streets have charming ancient names - Honey Street, Bee Street, Flower Street, Forest Street, Pigeon Street.
The history of the area is long, and as the governments changed, so did the language. The names of the streets quite literally stayed the same, but the language used changed to fit who governed at that time.
Baložu Iela ( Pigeon Street ) became Taubenstrasse in German times, and Ulica Golubei in the Czar's time here.

Cafe Fazenda. Photo: Zanda Milzarāja

What are now large, main streets such as Slokas, Kalnciema Daugavgrīvas, Bauskas, Jelgavas were once small roads which led to places like Sloka and Kalnciems.
No one could, back then, imagine that at some time in the future tram cars would rumble back and forth along these roads.

Nometņu Street. Photo: Zanda Milzarāja

Some of streets like Olga, Lavīze, Auce or Valentīns, are named after people, and all of them have a story about each person. But nobody knows these stories anymore.

Governments changed, but Āgenskalns stayed put.

In the the drawings of J.K.Broce, dated around the end of 18th century, you can see scenes of Dzegužkalns, Iļģuciems, and Zasulauks.These scenes of townspeople's lives make one think that life had returned to the suburbs, after the Great Northern War (1700-21) and the Great Plague (1710-11).

It is with horror, that I imagine a Pārdaugava that had become without inhabitants after the Plague. Water probably played a big role in this; clean, dirty, running, standing water in swamps.

I have been to Karlovi Vari in Czehia which, as the tour guide explained, because of it's many healing streams, had been left untouched by the Great Plague...