Description of the attraction
Kronvalda Park occupies both banks of the City Canal, located between Elizabetes and Krisjana Valdemara streets. The Kronvalda Park can be found as far back as the 15th century. For most of its history, the park has been a closed area. It was owned by the Shooters Society. The arrangement of the park began in 1863 by the German Shooting Society, then it was called the Shooting Garden.
In 1931, the city authorities bought the Shooting Garden, and at the same time expanded it by annexing the left bank of the canal to Kronvalda Boulevard. At the same time, the garden was renamed into Kronvalda Park, in honor of the publicist, linguist and Latvian teacher Atis Kronvalda (1837-1875). Kronwald was a patriot of his country. He fought for the right to teach children in school in Latvian, not German. Despite the fact that he was a simple rural scientist, Kronvald was able to do a lot for the development of rural schools. Due to the fact that Hatis was poor, he was able to graduate from the pedagogical courses of the University of Tartu only after 30 years. Kronvald's most famous book is National Aspirations.
The park was opened for the people in the 20s of the last century. At the same time, there was a significant reconstruction of the park. According to Andrei Zeydak's project, much attention was paid to flower beds and a rose garden, in which 20 thousand bushes then bloomed. Zeidak wanted to create a botanical garden on the territory of the park; for this, various types of shrubs and trees were brought from Germany. But, unfortunately, about half of the plantings froze during the cold winter of 1939.
In 1982, the House of Political Education was built here, near which a monument to the famous Soviet writer and public figure Andrei Upit was erected. Today Kronvalda Park is the second among the parks in Riga in terms of its dendrological composition. The park has 2 bridges connecting the banks of the canal. The railings of the bridges are overgrown with locks. According to the new tradition, the newlyweds lock the locks on the railing of the bridge, and throw the keys into the water.
Also on the territory of Kronvalda Park there is the Faculty of Biology of the University of Latvia, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the second secondary school, and a sports club. In the northern part of the park is the Shopping Center, which looks like a butterfly in plan, and next to it is the Maritime Academy.
