The story of Rundāle Palace

Rundāle Palace is one of the two great Baroque palaces built for the Dukes of Courland, the other being Jelgava Palace. In 1735 Duke Ernst Johann von Biron bought land here with an old medieval castle, and in 1736 construction began to a design by Bartolomeo Rastrelli.

Work went slowly, as materials were diverted to Jelgava, and when Biron fell from grace in 1740 the palace stood unfinished and empty until his return from exile in 1762. It was completed under Rastrelli in 1768, and Biron moved in almost at once, spending summers here until his death in 1772. In 1812 the palace served as a hospital for Napoleon's army, and in 1919 it was partly burned. After the Second World War a grain store was set up inside, and the duke's dining room became a school gym.

In 1972 the museum was founded, and its director Imants Lancmanis made the restoration his life's work, finished in the spring of 2015.