During 6-hour tour you will visit the Rundale Palace and French formal garden rounded by canal. Building of the palace was started in 1736, interrupted in 1740 because of Biron’s exile and finished in 1768 only after Biron’s return. In the masonry of the palace Rastrelli used unusually large size bricks produced at a nearby factory. Some of these bricks were forwarded to St. Petersburg and used in the construction of the Strelna Palace. As the result of the 3rd Partition of Rzeczpospolita (1795) Courland was included into the Russian Empire. The Rundale Palace belonged to Russian aristocrat families of Zubovs and Shuvalovs. During the Russian Civil War the palace was devastated by soldiers of West White Army struggling for the “United, Great and Indivisible Russia” against forces of Latvian national government (1919).

Restoration of the palace was started in 1933 but in Soviet period this great architectural monument was populated by lodgers and some rooms were used as a warehouse for grain. New restoration was started in 1972 only. In the eastern block of the palace the Golden Hall, the White Hall and the Grand Gallery are open to visitors, in the main building are the Duke’s apartments (parade salons and private apartments), and in the western wing — fully renovated apartment of the Duchess. Today the Rundale Palace is not a museum only but also the place of the president of Latvia official receptions.