Construction of the building began at a time when parts of present-day Latvia were administered by the Russian Empire as the Governorate of Livonia, which included present-day northern Latvia and a large part of southern Estonia. The Livonian Noble Corporation was a semi-autonomous fiefdom that administered the area on behalf of the Emperor. The Noble Corporation also known as the "knighthood" began at the dissolution of the Teutonic Order in Livonia in the 16th century, and comprised the Baltic-German nobility who made up the ruling class in Latvia and Estonia until the First World War. The Landtag was not a democratic body, but was rather an aristocratic assembly of Nobles. Construction began in 1863 and was designed by Robert Pflug, a Baltic-German, and Jānis Baumanis, the first academically trained Latvian architect. The exterior and interior were finished in Eclectic style. The façade featured a niche containing a statue by Danish sculptor David Jensen of the Teutonic Landmeister Wolter von Plettenberg.
Latvian independence
After the People’s Council declared Latvian independence on 18 November 1918 the building served as its home, except for the period during 1919 when the All-Latvian Congress of Workers' Soviet Deputies of the Latvian Socialist Soviet Republic controlled Riga. After the socialist republic was defeated, the building became the seat of the Constitutional Assembly elected in 1920. On 17 October 1921, the building was destroyed by fire. It was restored according to the design of the architect Eižens Laube. The restoration included a new statue by sculptor Rihards Maurs of Lāčplēsis the "bear-slayer", from the Latvian epic of the same name, replacing the statue of von Plettenberg which was destroyed in the fire. At the time of the building's restoration the main assembly hall was modified to meet the needs of the Saeima of the new Republic of Latvia. The Saeima chamber today still approximates this design. The last meeting of the Constitutional Assembly, which wrote the Constitution of Latvia took place in the restored building on 3 November 1922.
During the Second World War, after Latvia was occupied, the building was the location of the Supreme Council of the Latvian SSR under the Soviets and the headquarters of the SS and police for the Eastern territories under Nazi Germany. Latvia remained under Soviet occupation after the war and the building served as the location of the Supreme Council for almost half a century. In the early 1980s one of the inner courtyards was walled in to expand building space, this part of the building is now known as the Voting Room.
