Europe is famous for it‘s magnificent Baroque landmarks – the style began in the early 17th century in Rome and spread across most of Europe. One of the most outstanding architecture monuments in Latvia is the beautiful Rundale Palace. It‘s a beautiful baroque ensemble – a castle surrounded by an alluring garden – park. There are a lot of things to do when you visit this Latvian town, but you must find time to delve into the marvellous Palace of Rundale.

Biron and his wishes

In the early 18th century, a Duke Ernst Johann von Biron bought some land in Rundale, including an old medieval castle and all of its territory. The old castle was wrecked down, and a new construction began. The new castle was built following all of the Baroque trends and rules. Due to the Duke‘s fall from grace, the construction stopped, and the castle stood untouched until 1762 when the Biron returned from his banishment. The castle was finished in 1768 and decorated heavily following the duke’s wishes. The castle turned out to be a Baroque wonder – every room was decorated keeping in mind little details. Now some of the rooms are open to the public. When you visit the Rundale Palace, you can walk around the Golden Hall, the White Hall and the Main Hall. In the main housing there is the Duke‘s suite of rooms: built for the welcoming reception for guests and his private rooms, and on the West side of the house, there are the completely restored rooms of Duke‘s wife.

Museum and its exhibitions

The museum holds quite a few permanent exhibitions – you can see the chance of styled from the Gothic to Art Nouveau styles in Latvia. Also, exhibitions are showing historical clothes of the Duke and the Dutchess. There are constantly new temporary exhibitions held that allows you to get acquainted with the Duke‘s family tree and the castle building process. The majority of exhibitions are held inside of the castle, but some of them, from time to time, have been detained in the gardener‘s house in the forest park.

Wandering around in the park

Probably one of the most impressive things about the Rundale Palace is the garden surrounding it. The Baroque park is located on the south side of the castle. It is a French garden, that starts with beautiful alleys and turns into a forest garden. The garden used to be a hunting place of the monarchy. Some of the expositions of the museum are often held in the historical gardener‘s house. The park also contains three pools with fountains, a green theatre and an ornamental parterre. In 2005 a new Rose Garden was opened up to the public – the pleasant sweet smell lingers in the air and hypnotises you until you start wanting to move into the palace.

The Rundale Palace is a breathtaking place and will conquer the hearts of everyone that visits it. Beautiful baroque architecture takes you on a journey to the past lives of the Latvian aristocracy. Visiting Rundale and its beautiful palace is one of the biggest perks of taking part in the tours of Latvia.

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