Rundale Palace

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Friday, 16 October 2009 20:19

Rundale Palace

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Photo of Rundale Palace Bauska, Latvia

Rundale Palace is one of the most beautiful monuments of Baroque and Rococo art in Latvia. It was built between 1736 and 1740 as a summer residence of Duke Ernst Johann of Courland.
The famous Italian architect Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli designed Rundale Palac and was a supervisor during construction work. After the death of Empress Anna, the Duke was arrested and sent to exile in Russia. Construction process in the palace were resumed after the Duke's returned at the beginning of the reign of Empress Catherine II.
The major part of the interior was made in the period between 1765 and 1768.

The great Italian masters from St. Petersburg Carlo Zucchi and Francesco Martini created many of paintings on the ceilings and walls. The sculptor Johann Michael Graff from Berlin made decorations on the background of artificial marble.Following the annexation of the Duchy of Courland-Semigallia to the Russia, Rundale Palace became the property of Valerian Zubov. The next owner of the palace was the Valerian brother Platon Zubov whose widow married Andrei Shuvalov. The Shuvalov family owned the palace until 1920 when the new Latvian government introduced the reform and, as a result, the palace became the property of the new Republic of Latvia.

After World War I there were public flats and an elementary school in the damaged palace. In 1933 the palace was taken over by the State Museum of History and some repairs were carried out there. The palace did not take a damage during World War II but after some of its rooms were used for a granary. In 1972 the Rundale Palace Museum was founded and restoration of the palace began. Restoration is not yet completed and is still going on.