On St James’s Day, a procession left still-young Riga for a Liv village beyond the city walls. There, on 25 July 1211, Bishop Albert granted St Mary’s Church a plot for a monastery and for what is now Riga Cathedral; the change of ownership was settled by exchange or purchase. From that dry legal act grew a space Riga would later know not only as a church, but as one of the city’s spiritual and musical addresses.

In the early 13th century, Riga was still securing its place in Daugava trade and in Livonia’s political landscape. The building of the cathedral was also a matter of land, property, and church administration—the sources show mechanisms for exchanging Liv and German property alongside the language of worship.