Jurmala, Majori, Юрас

The house was built in 1938 by Latvian architect Vitols in collaboration with German interior designer and architect Lange to produce an architectural masterpiece set in 1 Ha of beautiful garden with direct access to the sandy beach in the centre of Jurmala; it was then considered one of the finest and most modern houses built. The building was the private estate of the social lady and press publisher Emilija Benjamin, who was the richest person in pre-World War II Latvia. The elegance of the building is improved by the natural stone plate panneling featuring also the traces of the World War II – unerasable darker areas as a requirement of air defense rules. After the World War for almost 50 years the residence of Benjamins served as a summer guest house for the authorities of the Soviet Union, but in 1995 the building was returned to the heirs of the proprietor. There are art treasures in the building that the most part of them are manufactured at the end of the 19th century – the beginning of the 20th century. The fence along Juras Street is the most exquisite metal fence in Jurmala that is made according to drawings of the architect Sergejs Antonovs and is included on the list of the art monuments of Jurmala. The interiors are Art Deco, Interior architect Lange used a concept of natural light with its large windows and skylights within a neoclassical and modernistic frame to create a piece of art. The interiors are geometrical and the space opens up cathedral-like to rectangular shapes and attracts the incoming natural light to maximise the interplay of light and geometry. The interior seems to dance as the sun light moves from morning to evening from east to west from room to room. Seaward is a three-piece curved (concave) window running the full width of the dining room, but to the landward side a glass wall runs the full width of the central hall and can be lowered into the ground by an electric lift-like motor, opening the house to the outside. Adjacent to the dining room with its three-piece curved double windows is the summer room with large glass and metal sliding doors which open like an accordion to both sides of the walls to the garden towards the sea. The motorised glass wall is not the only ultra modern feature of the house. There are fixtures of aluminium, a metal as precious as gold at the time and of Bakelite, the just developed forerunner of modern plastic. The window and door fittings were manufactured in the “famous” Yale factory according to “Bauhaus” specification. Each door is a collector’s item as each is made of the highest quality walnut while the inlaid design of the natural parquet floors never repeat itself from one room to the other.