Riga State Gymnasium No.1 (), the oldest school in the

Baltic states The Baltic states or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term encompassing Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone, and the OECD. The three sovereign states on the eastern co ...

, offers secondary education (grades 7 to 12) in

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

, the capital of

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

. The school traces its origins to school of

Riga Cathedral Riga Cathedral (; ) formally The Cathedral Church of Saint Mary, is the Evangelical Lutheran cathedral in Riga, Latvia. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Riga. The cathedral is one of the most recognizable landmarks in Latvia, and is featur ...

, which was founded in 1211, a decade after the foundation of Riga itself. Its name and language of instruction have changed several times during its history. The school language was

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

from the school's foundation until 1892, when it became

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

. Latvian became the main language of instruction in 1919. Today, the gymnasium is known for its strong programs in the

natural science Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer ...

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

and

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

. Students wishing to enroll at the school take an admissions test in mathematics. Its admissions rate, with as many as nine candidates competing for each position, is one of the lowest in the country. Since 1997 the school enrolls 30 to 40 people in its

International Baccalaureate The International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), more commonly known as the International Baccalaureate (IB), is a nonprofit foundation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and founded in 1968. It offers four educational programmes: the I ...

Diploma Programme each year, where instruction is offered in English. It was the first school in the

to offer the IBO Diploma Programme. Each year a number of 12th grade students finish the DSD (Das Deutsches Sprachdiplom) programme by taking an exam along with the regular school leaving exams. Passing the exam enables them to pursue their higher education in German speaking countries. Riga State Gymnasium No.1 is consistently ranked first among the schools in Latvia. Its students' average results on school leaving (state) exams are the highest in the country. Riga State Gymnasium No.1 is also the best school in Latvia based on its students' achievements at various domestic and international academic competitions. Many of the graduates continue their education at highly ranked universities abroad, particularly in the UK, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the USA. The percentage of these students is very high among the ones who graduate from the IBO Diploma Programme.

Notable alumni

Ingus Baušķenieks Ingus Baušķenieks (born December 30, 1956Stundiņš, Jānis (2005). "Ingus Baušķenieka mūža postmodernisms". ''Mūzikas Saule'' 27: 27.. Retrieved 4 March 2008.) is a Latvian musician known as a member of Dzeltenie Pastnieki and as a sol ...

– Latvian musician *

Gunnar Birkerts Gunnar Birkerts (, January 17, 1925 – August 15, 2017) was a Latvian American architect who, for the most of his career, was based in the metropolitan area of Detroit, Michigan. Some of his notable designs include the Corning Museum of Gla ...

– Latvian American architect *

Tomass Dukurs Tomass Dukurs (born 2 July 1981 in Riga) is a Latvian skeleton racer who has competed since 1998. Competing in three Winter Olympics, he finished fourth in the men's skeleton event at Vancouver in 2010 and Sochi in 2014. Career Duk ...

– Latvian

skeleton racer Skeleton is a winter sliding sport in which a person rides a small sled, known as a skeleton bobsled (or bobsleigh), down a frozen track while lying face down and head-first. The sport and the sled may have been named from the bony appearance o ...

Indulis Emsis Indulis Emsis (born 2 January 1952) is a Latvian biologist and politician. He was Prime Minister of Latvia for ten months in 2004, the first Green politician to lead a country in the history of the world. He was Speaker of the Saeima, the Latvia ...

– Latvian politician, former

Prime Minister of Latvia The prime minister of Latvia () is the most powerful member of the Government of Latvia, who presides over the Latvian Cabinet of Ministers. The officeholder is nominated by the president of Latvia, but must be able to obtain the support of a p ...

Māris Gailis Māris Gailis (born 9 July 1951) is a Latvian businessman and former politician. He is the former prime minister of Latvia, an office he held from September 1994 to December 1995. In the government of the Prime Minister Valdis Birkavs, Gailis be ...

– Latvian businessman, former Prime Minister of Latvia *

Ivars Godmanis Ivars Godmanis (born 27 November 1951) is a Latvian politician who served as the prime minister of Latvia from 1990 to 1993 and again from 2007 to 2009. He was the first prime minister of Latvia after the country restored its independence from t ...

– Latvian politician, former Prime Minister of Latvia *

Vytautas Landsbergis-Žemkalnis Vytautas Landsbergis-Žemkalnis (10 March 1893 – 21 May 1993) was a Lithuanian architect most active in interwar Lithuania (1926–1939). He was the father of Vytautas Landsbergis, the first Lithuanian head of state after independence from th ...

– Lithuanian architect *

Garlieb Merkel Garlieb Helwig Merkel ( in Lēdurga Parish (now Sigulda Municipality), Kreis Riga – in Riga) was a Baltic Germans, Baltic German writer and activist and an early Estophile and Latvians, Lettophile. Merkel was born into the family of a rur ...

– Baltic German writer and activist *

Wilhelm Ostwald Wilhelm Friedrich Ostwald (; – 4 April 1932) was a Latvian chemist and philosopher. Ostwald is credited with being one of the founders of the field of physical chemistry, with Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff, Walther Nernst and Svante Arrhenius. ...

– Baltic German

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

winning chemist *

Friedrich Parrot Johann Jacob Friedrich Wilhelm Parrot (14 October 1791) was a Baltic German naturalist, explorer, and mountaineer, who lived and worked in Tartu, Estonia in what was then the Governorate of Livonia of the Russian Empire. A pioneer of Russian ...

– Baltic German

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

and traveler *

Kristjan Jaak Peterson Kristjan Jaak Peterson (, Riga – , Riga), also known as Christian Jacob Petersohn, was an Estonian poet, commonly regarded as a herald of Estonian national literature and the founder of modern Estonian poetry. His birthday on March 14 is ce ...

– Estonian poet, commonly regarded as the founder of modern Estonian poetry *

Mārtiņš Pļaviņš Mārtiņš Pļaviņš (born 8 May 1985 in Riga) is a Latvian beach volleyball player. He teamed up with Aleksandrs Samoilovs in 2004. Pļaviņš and team mate Samoilovs represented Latvia at the Beach volleyball at the 2008 Summer Olympics, 2008 ...

– Latvian beach volleyball player, 2012 Olympic medalist *

Māris Purgailis Māris Purgailis (8 December 1947 – 26 September 2022) was a Latvian politician. He was the mayor of Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inh ...

– Latvian politician, former

Mayor of Riga Riga City Council () is the government of the city of Riga, the capital of Latvia. Its meeting place is in the Riga Town Hall (''Rīgas rātsnams)'' at the Town Hall Square (''Rātslaukums'') in the very heart of Riga. The Riga City Council con ...

Jānis Pliekšāns Jānis Pliekšāns (11 September 1865 – 11 September 1929), known by his pseudonym Rainis, was a Latvian poet, playwright, translator, and politician. Rainis' works include the classic plays ''Uguns un nakts'' (''Fire and Night'', 1905) and ''I ...

(Rainis) – Latvian poet and politician *

Einars Repše Einars Repše (born 9 December 1961) is a Latvian physicist, financier and politician, chairman of the Association for Latvian Development. Early life Einars Repše graduated from Latvia State University (now known as University of Latvia) i ...

– Latvian politician, former Prime Minister of Latvia *

Justs Sirmais Justs Sirmais (born 6 February 1995), also known as simply Justs, is a Latvian singer and television presenter. He represented Latvia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 with the song " Heartbeat". Life and career Early life Justs was born on 6 ...

– Latvian singer *

Pēteris Stučka Pēteris Stučka, sometimes spelt Pyotr Stuchka; ( – 25 January 1932), was a Latvian jurist and communist politician, leader of the pro-Bolshevik puppet government in Latvia during the 1918–1920 Latvian War of Independence, and later a stat ...

– Latvian politician, head of the

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

government in

during the

Latvian War of Independence The Latvian War of Independence (), sometimes called Latvia's freedom battles () or the Latvian War of Liberation (), was a series of military conflicts in Latvia between 5 December 1918, after the newly proclaimed Republic of Latvia was invade ...

Daina Taimiņa Daina Taimiņa (born August 19, 1954) is a Latvian mathematician, retired adjunct associate professor of mathematics at Cornell University, known for developing a way of modeling hyperbolic geometry with crocheted objects. Education and career T ...

– Latvian mathematician

References

External links

*

– Deutsches Sprachdiplom {{Authority control 1211 establishments in Europe Education in Riga Educational institutions established in the 13th century International Baccalaureate schools in Latvia Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Schools in Latvia

Notable alumni

See also

References

External links