The History of the Conservation of Latvia’s Architectural Heritage

"The preservation of cultural heritage reflects a society’s dominant values and attitudes towards its past. In this respect, the aim of protecting architectural monuments is to preserve a building as a historically and artistically valuable object. However, this objective is not simple, because the understanding of the criteria that define a monument’s value changes with time,” says the author Mārtiņš Mintaurs.

“Until now, the history of the conservation of architectural monuments in Latvia’s historiography has been studied only fragmentarily. In studies devoted to the history of Latvia’s architecture the reconstruction or renovation of historical buildings has been mentioned merely as a branch of architecture. Therefore, the aim of this book is to offer the first comprehensive overview of the main tendencies and events in the history of the protection of Latvia’s architectural heritage from the 18th century to the present day. The range of sources on this subject that historians have access to is very wide, which is why it is only possible here to outline the subjects that pertain to the problems of protecting historical buildings in Latvia today,” Mārtiņš Mintaurs continues.