Baroque Events at Rundale Palace.

The Summer Palace in Rundale was designed by the Italian architect Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli and built between 1736 and 1740 as a summer residence for the Duke of Courland, Ernst Johann Biron. As the duke was the favourite of the Russian empress Anna Ivanovna who ruled Russia from 1730 to 1740, many believed that it was the Duke of Courland who had actual power in the Russian empire as long as Anna Ivanovna ruled the country. This changed abruptly when the empress died from a stomach disease at the early age of 47 in 1740. The duke was arrested and sent into exile in Russia, and could only return to Rundale and Courland to complete the construction of the Summer Palace when Catharine II came to power in Russia in 1762. The palace is considered to be one of the best examples of Baroque and Rococo art in Northern Europe. After a long restoration period led by the palace’s legendary director Imants Lancmanis, baroque life has returned to Rundale.