early as the tenth century, there was a tribe village developed at the mouth of the Daugava Livs. The current city was founded in 1201 by Bishop Albert von Buxhövden and quickly became, as one of the members of the Hanseatic League from 1282, an important trading center on the Baltic coast. In 1207, the construction of the city walls. After 1225 years the papal legate William of Modena, said townspeople law, which had German merchants in Visby on Gotland. In the Middle Ages, Riga was one of the most important ports of the Baltic. From that moment began in Riga and across Latvia strong influence of German culture, German language and German settlers, and this situation lasted for hundreds of years. After 1237 years the property and rights of the Livonian Order in the city took over the Teutonic Knights. Since 1255 Riga was the seat of the Catholic Archdiocese of Prussia, Livonia and Estonia, among others, the subject Diocese of Chelmno and the Diocese of Warmia.
