SPLENDID PALACE opened in December 30, 1923

This was the first movie theatre in Latvia built specifically for the movies and is the only one which still is a cinema. At the opening there were 824 seats in the building, it cost 850 000 lats, and became the most impressive movie theatre in the Baltic states between the two wars. Today it is a national architectural monument. Splendid Palace was also the first movie theatre in Latvia which began to show sound-films. It’s name remained unchanged even in the early years of the Soviet occupation – only in the late fifties was it renamed Riga. Film festivāls, including the national festival Lielais Kristaps, Latvian film evenings, and film premieres are held regularly in this cinema.