Other Former Vocational School, Latvia - October 2022

The_Raw · Mar 10, 2023

I came across a news article about this abandoned school while I was doing some research for a trip to Latvia with @elliot5200. It didn't look that fascinating from the handful of pictures in the article but we decided to go for a look anyway. It turned out to be quite an interesting place with some relics from the Soviet era and lots of murals. I'm not sure when it was built but I believe it was a juvenile facility to begin with and became a vocational school for the state in 1991, around the time that the Soviet Union collapsed. The school accepted problematic young people who were unable or unwilling to study in other schools and gave them the opportunity to get a basic education and profession at the same time. The boys learned carpentry, while the girls learned sewing. In 2009 the Ministry of Education and Science decided to shut the institution down and it has been neglected ever since. Years of decay and vandalism hasn't been kind but there is still a lot to see. I have no idea why there is so much stuff left behind from the Soviet era but I'm all for it!

As soon as we walked through the front door we were greeted by this plaque with a red star, hammer and sickle, stating 'October Revolution'

Loved this mural in one of the stairwells

Fading Olympic rings and the Olympic motto “Citius, Altius, Fortius” (“Faster, Higher, Stronger”)

Basketball court

Misha, also known as Mishka or The Olympic Mishka was the Russian Bear mascot of the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games. Misha was apparently the first mascot of a sporting event to achieve large-scale commercial success in merchandise