Riga Asks for Million to Heat Buildings — In Liepāja They'd Call That a Fuel Stockpile

The Latvian National Archive has found itself in a situation that even Liepāja residents would find absurd — their buildings in Riga were so cold in winter that the documents probably started reading each other just to somehow warm up. Now they're asking the government to allocate one million euros to prevent an emergency situation and make the premises suitable for more than just penguins.

In Riga, at Bezdelīgu Street 1A and Slokas Street 16, the situation is so tragic that even the Liepāja Karosta canal bridge would seem like a tropical oasis compared to these buildings. There it was impossible to ensure minimum temperature in winter for either employees or documents. "State Real Estate" specialists calculated that repairs need 505,994 euros, plus another 1,279 euros for the fact that they themselves looked at the buildings and said: "Yes, it's cold here."

But that's not all! The Institute "Pilsētprojekts" historical archive with 120,000 items is located in a building from which the owners have asked them to move out by May 2026. The problem — the documents are so moldy that even Liepāja residents, who are used to sea humidity, would say: "Well, this is overdoing it!" Disinfection, organization and document relocation requires another 503,780 euros.

Local Liepāja archivist Gunārs comments: "Our archives in Karosta tend to be humid, but for mold to actually eat the documents — that's a work of art! But for a million euros we'd build a new archive in Liepāja and still have money left for a coffee machine." While Riga thinks about how to spend a million on cold and mold, in Liepāja we continue to enjoy our efficient fuel costs and relatively dry archives.