Rundāle Palace

A baroque palace in the flat agricultural lowlands of southern Latvia, built in two phases in the 1730s and 1760s as a summer residence for Duke Ernst Johann von Biron of Courland and designed by Bartolomeo Rastrelli — the same architect responsible for the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg. The restored state rooms contain an exceptional collection of period furnishings, stucco decorations, and ceiling paintings, while the formal French garden behind the palace has been partially restored to its 18th-century layout.