"Around the corner on Jauniela, I come upon a glorious Jugenstil building owned by the writer Andra Neiburga. The Neiburgs are another family who have regained their property in Riga and Andra and her artist daughter, Katrina, are busy transforming this site into a restaurant and hotel.

The Neiburgs' property portfolio was created by Ludvigs Neiburgs, a penniless country boy who arrived in Riga in 1891, trained as a mason and became the biggest builder in Latvia. On 14 July 1941, the fateful day when the Soviet deportations began, the entire Neiburgs family was in the countryside except for one daughter who was seized in Riga and sent to Siberia. Two of Neiburgs' children eventually escaped to the West via Germany, but a son, who had served in the Latvian army, spent 10 years in a labour camp.

The Neiburgs' property across Riga was nationalised after 1945 and many apartments were given to Stalin's generals. This block on Jaun iela became a restaurant, Pie Kristapa, solely for the party faithful. Towards the end of the communist era it would often be empty, but customers were still turned away if they were not nomenklatura. Ludvigs Neiburgs died in 1948, but in 1993 Andra Neiburga, who was living the breadline existence of an artist in Soviet times, got some of her family's property back. In July this year, the Jauniela building opened as Neiburgs restaurant. Work continues on the hotel, which will open early next year."

Adrian Mourby, The Independent