Ghost Signs in Riga

Ģipša Fabrika (Gypsym Factory) is located on the island of Kipsala, a former fishermen’s village. This 19th century brick building used to be a plaster factory. Now it is part of a luxury apartment complex.


 

Somewhere in the Old Town

These two signs are on a building on Albert Street, a street famous for its Art Nouveu buildings

My best guess is that this says “tapezierer,” which seems to be a German word meaning upholsterer, decorator, or paperhanger.

Seems to say something like “un Deguretais,” whatever that could mean... 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Ukrainian Alphabet and the Soft Sign

Image
There are several differences in the Ukrainian alphabets used in the diaspora and in Ukraine, in particular, what we call the alphabet, the way we pronounce the letters, the melody we use when singing the alphabet (or the lack there of a song), as well as the difference I only recently discovered - the placement of the soft sign. In Ukraine the soft sign "ь" doesn't come at the end of the alphabet as I learned, but third to last. It was quite a big shock for me to discover. However, this was a relatively recent change. In 1990, the soft sign was moved from the end of the alphabet to the place after the letter "щ" as it is in the Russian alphabet. I'm surprised it wasn't moved back a year later when Ukraine gained its independence. First of all, we usually say "азбука" or "абетка" while in Ukraine it is more common to say "aлфавіт" or "абетка" (for children). When we (at least my Chicago diaspora community) sing
Read more

The Archaic Language of the Ukrainian Diaspora

Image
Please go to my new website Forgotten Galicia to read this post (an updated version). Click here . Over the last several years my interest in languages and dialects has grown. I have become very fascinated by the way the Ukrainian language has developed in the diaspora vs. Ukraine. The Ukrainian language spoken in the diaspora is the language that was spoken in western Ukraine before WWII. The majority of Ukrainian immigrants who went to the West during and right after WWII were from Galicia and Western Ukraine. Galicia had had a long history of Polish rule and influence, thus the language spoken there had a lot of Polonisms. This language didn’t evolve much in the diaspora, so Ukrainians still speak this language. (Though there has been some English influence on the language.) Furthermore, it retained several archaic words relating to technology (for example, in the diaspora we still usually say загасити світло (extinguish the light) , which harks back to a time when fire was us
Read more

Hoisting Beams in Amsterdam

Image
Amsterdam is beaming with hoisting beams. Previously I associated hoisting beams solely with old merchant's homes, but unlike other port cities where I've seen them, in Amsterdam they are found not only on the old canal houses, but all over the city, including on ordinary residential buildings. Due to fifteenth century planning laws, facades of buildings were built of lightweight materials with large windows to reduce weight. The smaller the width of the frontage, the lower taxes had to paid. In the seventeenth century, the city became more prosperous and thus wider, double-fronted merchant's homes sprung up.  The merchant's houses had attics and cellars which served as storage spaces for the goods that were transported by boat. Since the houses were so narrow, the stairwells were too steep and narrow, making it largely impossible to carry up goods or furniture into the home. Thus beams were attached to the gables in order to hoist up (with a pulley and rope) larg
Read more