St Jacob's (Sv. Jēkaba katedrāle) is the Catholic cathedral of Riga, a Gothic brick church that dates to the 13th century. It stands at the northern edge of the Old Town, just inside the city wall, and has swapped denominations repeatedly over the centuries — Lutheran, then Catholic, now serving as the seat of the Archbishop of Riga.
The exterior is plain in the Latvian brick Gothic manner; the interior is modest but atmospheric. The small bell in the tower, cast in 1509, was historically rung as a warning when executions were about to take place on the square below — condemned prisoners would reportedly pause to hear it on their way to the scaffold.