All news – Rundāle Palace

Mežotne Palace park is closed due to storm damage

Due to storm damage and disruptions to the electricity supply, Mežotne Palace is closed to visitors on 23 August. Please be advised that it is dangerous to enter Mežotne Palace Park, as a number of trees were severely damaged during the storm. The park will remain closed to visitors until the storm damage has been...

Information for the visitors of the French garden of Rundāle Palace

Starting from August, construction of a new watering system will begin in the front section of the French garden of Rundāle Palace, namely, in the rose garden and the ornamental parterre. This work will be carried out over several months, however the garden will remain open to visitors. Restrictions will be minor and localised, therefore...

One-painting exhibition: Jean Huber Voltaire’s Last Supper

Until 27 September, the Duke’s Library of the Rundāle Palace Museum will host a one-painting exhibition, namely, the piece Voltaire’s Last Supper (ca. 1772) by the Swiss artist Jean Huber (1721–1786), deposited from the Voltaire Foundation at the University of Oxford. The artist has depicted, in a witty and provocative composition, the most outstanding French Enlightenment...

Baroque Music Concert “To Explain and To Feel. Affects and Elements”

Do emotions originate in the mind or in the heart? Can they be explained or experienced only? Composers of the Baroque period looked for answers in music, and we would like to invite you to experience it as well in the Baroque music concert “To Explain and To Feel. Affects and Elements” on 5 September. Artists...

Baroque Music Concert “The Perfect and the Transitory: Beauty and Time”

What makes a piece of art beautiful? Is perfection eternal, or is its value revealed by the time? Baroque music concert “The Perfect and the Transitory: Beauty and Time” dedicated to these questions will take place in the White Hall of the Rundāle Palace Museum on 21 November. During the Baroque period, beauty was not just...

Restoration of the Kettler Dynasty’s sarcophagi has been completed

On 3 July 2026, the dedication of the restored sarcophagi of Prince Sigismund Albert (1567–1569), Prince Gotthard (1568–1570), and Prince Georg (1572) who were children of Gotthard, Duke of Courland, and also the restored sarcophagus and the remains of Elisabeth Magdalena, Duchess of Courland, (1580–1649) took place at the Family Vault of the Dukes of Courland...

From Tulip Mania to Baroque Flower Arrangements – Exhibition “The Allure of Flowers”

On 24 May, celebration of the 290th anniversary of Rundāle Palace included the official opening of the exhibition “The Allure of Flowers” in the Museum, and it will be open for visitors until 31 October. The exhibition offers a multi-layered view of flowers and their depiction in art, revealing the arrival story of garden flowers nowadays popular...

An exhibition regarding the Salon of Duchess Dorothea in Ernst Welker’s caricatures has been opened in Mežotne Palace

An exhibition “Court of the Muses: Duchess Dorothea of Courland’s Salon at Löbichau Palace in Ernst Welker’s Caricatures” has been opened in Mežotne Palace, until 6 September providing visitors with the opportunity of learning more about the most striking aristocratic and intellectual salons of Europe in the 19th century. The exhibition is centred around the...

Expanded Exhibition of the Duke’s Library

On 15 February, the 302nd birthday of Duke Peter of Courland and Semigallia, a significantly expanded exhibition of the Duke’s library was opened at the Rundāle Palace Museum. At the end of last year, the museum acquired a large and historically significant sample of a private library of 17th–19th century aristocrats, consisting of several thousand...

Initial certification of Rundāle Palace Museum guides

First-time guide certification will take place in the Rundāle Palace Museum on 13 January, 10 February and 17 March 2026 at 10.30 a.m. The certification procedure will include an oral test relevant to the narration in the museum’s exhibition rooms. To apply for certification, please fill in the application form: https://forms.office.com/e/t9hE3xxE7Q First-time certification is required for obtaining a certificate that allows...

New book by Lauma Lancmane “Antique Lace: 16th–18th Century”

The Rundāle Palace Museum has published a new book Ancient Lace: 16th–18th Century written by Lauma Lancmane, the long-time employee of the Museum. The catalogue is currently the most extensive overview of the lace collection of the Rundāle Palace Museum, uncovering another significant part of the Museum collections and highlighting the development of lace...

The Garden Festival dedicated to the theme of “Dance in the Garden”

Rundāle Palace Museum invites to the annual Garden Festival As usual, on 28 June this year, coinciding with the most beautiful rose blossom season, we will celebrate the traditional Garden Festival in the French garden of Rundāle Palace. This year, the festival will be dedicated to the theme of “Dance in the Garden”. The festival programme...