St.Jacob’s Church Bell

St.Jacob’s Church bell is located in the canopy over the Church’s steeple. Its peculiar placement has made Riga’s inhabitants pay attention to this bell. Legend tells that it tolled every time an adulteress passed by. The people also call it a bell of poor sinners because it tolled as an invitation to see beheadings and other punishments in the Town Square. According to legend, the wives of Riga managed to persuade their husbands to remove the bell. But the story has a strong basis in reality since the Town Council’s regulations stated: “To cut off the head of a man who is found near another’s wife”. But the victim could gain clemency for the guilty man by taking from him 10 silver marks and donating 3 of these marks to the city. In 1915 the bell together with the rest of the bells from the Riga Churches was evacuated to Russia. In 2001, the bell of St. Jacob’s Church was restored.