A white dove on the red carpet—that was how one of the most photogenic moments of Riga’s 800th anniversary began. On 18 August 2001, the climax day of the celebrations, German president Johannes Rau arrived in Riga; Latvia’s president Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga welcomed him at Riga Castle, and later that day a ceremonial lunch at the House of the Blackheads also brought together Estonian president Lennart Meri and Lithuanian president Valdas Adamkus. For a moment, the city’s birthday looked like diplomacy and a street festival in the same frame.

In 2001 Riga celebrated 800 years since 1201, when Bishop Albert moved his residence to Riga. The anniversary coincided with the first decade of restored Latvian independence, so the festivities also carried a clear foreign-policy tone: Riga was presenting itself as the capital of an independent European state.