About the Church
The Roman Catholic Church of Saint Meinhard in Ikšķile is a modern Catholic shrine in the town of Ikšķile on the Dauguva, to the south-east of Riga. It belongs to the Archdiocese of Riga and is dedicated to Saint Meinhard.
The choice of location is no accident: it was in Ikšķile, at the end of the 12th century, that the monk Meinhard – the first Bishop of Livonia and the founder of Christianity in this land – built the first masonry church on the territory of present-day Latvia. A statue of Saint Meinhard was erected beside the new shrine in 2010.
The present church was built in 2013–2018. It houses three altars in the Baroque style, and in 2018 a church bell cast in Poland was consecrated. The shrine is a living spiritual home for the Catholic community of Ikšķile and also recalls the deep Christian origins of this place.
The choice of location is no accident: it was in Ikšķile, at the end of the 12th century, that the monk Meinhard – the first Bishop of Livonia and the founder of Christianity in this land – built the first masonry church on the territory of present-day Latvia. A statue of Saint Meinhard was erected beside the new shrine in 2010.
The present church was built in 2013–2018. It houses three altars in the Baroque style, and in 2018 a church bell cast in Poland was consecrated. The shrine is a living spiritual home for the Catholic community of Ikšķile and also recalls the deep Christian origins of this place.