One of Riga's main Catholic churches – the Church of Our Lady of Sorrows – appeared on Castle Square in the form we know today, spontaneously and unexpectedly. In the 1760s, an ordinary modest church was erected on this site, and for some time the townspeople were, if not happy, at least satisfied.
Only Archduke Joseph II of Austria was dissatisfied, and when he visited Riga in 1780, he visited the church, as was proper, and was outraged by the poverty of its decoration and the low quality of the construction work. Without thinking twice, he allocated a decent sum of money for the construction of a new church building.
Other royal personages followed his example, including the King of Poland and the future Emperor of Russia Paul I, as well as many parishioners from the lower estates. The new church was built and consecrated in honor of Our Lady of Sorrows in 1785.
The appearance of the church was finally shaped in the second half of the 19th century, when under the direction of the now famous, but then still very young architect Johann Felsko, the building was expanded on the side of the northern facade, and a new gate tower was also erected – a stone one instead of the old wooden one. Interestingly, this reconstruction too was carried out after the dissatisfaction of a crowned personage: Emperor Nicholas I thought that the church was too narrow.
