Riga’sChristmasSecret

One snowy evening, just before the 1926 solstice, as the busy offices of central Riga were preparing to close and the lights of the coming night began to glow in street lamps and restaurants, a grey-haired elderly woman cautiously entered the marble banking hall of the Riga Stock Exchange Bank, fresh snowflakes sparkling on her grey woollen shawl. “I have come to deposit a Christmas secret for safekeeping,” she said hesitantly to the stern bank manager, who looked impatiently at her across the large oak counter, as though there were nothing in all of Riga that could not be entered in a ledger and locked in an iron safe. Just before the end of the working day, the secret was deposited in the Stock Exchange Bank’s vaults. “A bank’s order is its soul,” the manager said to herself.

Exactly a century later, as we await the turn of the year, we invite everyone on an adventure of wonder and light to find the Christmas secret deposited in the historic Stock Exchange Bank. A multimedia labyrinth of lights, sounds, scents, video, lasers, special effects and flying light objects will lead you through impressions from many different eras and cultures: from the eternal ice beyond the Arctic Circle to evenings bathed in the light of burning wood splinters in an old Latvian farmstead; through Jazz Age Paris with its rustling silk, sequins and champagne, to the whistles of Thames steamships accompanied by the scent of tea in London; past a fairground carousel amid the burghers’ splendour of medieval Old Riga, to an ultramodern secret bank vault guarded by laser beams. During the adventure, you will also be able to see various artefacts and the largest collection of Christmas tree ornaments.

Come and you will find it!