On 23 May 1834, Jānis Frīdrihs Baumanis was born in Riga — the first academically trained Latvian architect. From the family of an anchorman on Zaķusala, he reached the Berlin Building Academy and the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, and later helped transform Riga’s Boulevard Ring into a representative 19th-century urban landscape. Baumanis designed more than 150 buildings, including, together with Robert Pflug, today’s Saeima building, the Riga Circus building, and the stages for the first three Latvian Song Festivals.