The Christian world knows Saint Gertrude as the protector and patron saint of travelers. In Medieval times the church named after Saint Gertrude was located outside the walls of the city of Riga. The location of the church at the very gate of Riga enabled the travelers, who arrived at the closed city gate after dark, to have a place to thank the Lord for His protection during their travel. An evidence based story tells of the event in 1478 when the sacred vessel of chrism was brought from Rome and was placed on the altar of St. Gertrude church. This historic event has been symbolically documented in the current seal of the Old St. Gertrude church. Written records about the Riga Old St. Gertrude church date back to the beggining of the 15 th. century. However, the first visual evidence appeared only in 1792 when the German artist and ethnographer Johann Christoph Brotze (1742-1823) made a drawing of the newly built wooden church whose building regrettably failed to outlive the city boundry fire of July 1812. After the fire for several decades the parish gathered for services in a modest wooden building on the corner of Brivibas and Dzirnavu Streets. Then, on November 9, 1813 a parishioner of the Riga Old St. Gertrude church – mason Johan Jakob Felsko and his wife Therese Luise baptized their son Johann Daniel. In September 1863 the city architect and urban planner Johann Daniel Felsko (1813-1902) completed and signed the developed design of the Riga Old St. Gertrude Church.
