The Forburg quarter (Forburgs), Riga

Forburg is a quarter between Ausekļa, Sakaru and Eksporta streets and Vašingtona laukums. It consists of eight separate buildings set around the perimeter.
A competition of designs organised in 1912 was to select the best proposals for developing this territory, which belonged to the city. The jury's highest mark went to the design proposal of the architect Roessler, worked out by him together with the architects Iogansaon and Tserrer. Forburg was built over two years, in 1913-1914, to designs by several architects but in accordance with Roessler's master plan.
The street inside the quarter opens through archways onto Sakaru iela and Vašingtona laukums. The pocket courtyards formed by the side wings of the individual houses open onto it. At the centre, on an oval space, stood a pool with a fountain; it has not survived to our day.
The First World War kept this type of development from spreading through Riga, so there are not very many examples; another is the built-up quarter between Vīlandes and Rūpniecības streets.
In later years part of the buildings held educational institutions: the 11th German primary school, and also the Luther Evangelical Lutheran Academy, likewise German. The whole of Forburg is a vivid example of "Germanness" in the detailing, the quality and the approach in Riga's architecture. Baltic German culture in Riga was still very significant at that time.
In the Soviet years many of the buildings were converted into cultural and educational institutions - two faculties of the Riga Polytechnic worked here, for example.