Brothers' Cemetery (Riga)

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The Brothers' Cemetery or Cemetery of the Brethren (in Latvian "Brāļu Kapi") also sometimes referred to in English as the Common Graves or simply as the Military Cemetery, is a military cemetery and national monument in Riga, capital of Latvia.

The cemetery is a memorial to and burial ground for thousands of Latvian soldiers who were killed between 1915 and 1920 in World War I and the Latvian War of Independence. It also contains, as reburials, graves of Latvians killed during World War II and of holders of the Lāčplēsis War Order (Latvian: Lāčplēša Kara ordenis), awarded for notable merits during the Latvian War of Independence.

It was built as an integrated combination of sculpture and landscaping between 1924 and 1936, to designs by the sculptor Kārlis Zāle, many of whose sculptures feature strongly, by the architects P. Feders, A. Birzenieks, P. Kundziņš, the horticultural architect Andrejs Zeidaks, the sculptors J. Cirulis and F. Valdmanis and others.

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[edit] References

  • Apsitis, V., 1982. The Common Graves. Riga.