The Rundāle Palace Museum has joined the Network of European Royal Residences – an organization which brings together the most prominent palaces of Europe, including Versailles, Schönbrunn, and Sanssouci.
Participating in the organisation will open up possibilities for the Rundāle Palace Museum to cooperate with Europe’s most prominent and experienced palaces – museums in research, preservation and management of cultural heritage, and the promotion of tourism.
“The accession of the Rundāle Palace Museum to the European Network of Royal Residences proves that our cherished palace is equivalent to the most distinguished palaces in Europe, and this will certainly boost Latvia’s visibility not only among professionals but also among cultural tourists. It is primarily a professional benefit for the museum. The organization has 27 years of experience in promoting targeted cooperation between institutions that manage special types of cultural monuments – former and existing ruler residences. Members of the organization have the responsibility not only for preserving outstanding art collections, but also for maintaining architectural complexes and gardens. For the Rundāle Palace Museum, being an active participant in the Network of European Royal Residences will provide an opportunity to work directly with similar institutions, learn from good practices and share its experience in solving common problems, ” notes Laura Lūse, director of the Rundāle Palace Museum.
The Network of European Royal Residences consists of 32 organizations from 14 countries, which together represent more than 100 Royal residences. They cooperate among themselves in different formats: museum directors meet once a year in the General Assembly, while museum specialists have the opportunity to participate in technical meetings dedicated to different topics or challenges.
Members of the organization have access to short-term mobility program grants that allow museum specialists to go on experience-sharing trips to other museums represented in the organization.
The Network of European Royal Residences is also a collaborator in the International preventive conservation research Programme EPICO (European Protocol In Preventive Conservation), run by the Palace of Versailles. It aims to develop a method of preventive conservation tailored to museum collections in historic buildings so that changes in the conservation state of objects can be detected in a timely manner, the causes of changes identified, and the most appropriate solutions found.
The mission of the Rundāle Palace Museum is to make the Rundāle Palace ensemble an internationally important centre for art, cultural history and garden art. The Rundāle Palace ensemble is included in the Latvian National Register of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, while the Palace Baroque French garden attracted wider international attention in 2021 when it was awarded the European Garden Award. This year, active cooperation is also taking place with the Association of Castles and Museums around the Baltic Sea, whose members will visit the Rundāle Palace on September 14 to participate in a conference dedicated to the management and maintenance of historical gardens and territories.