Rundāle Palace

After visiting the Hill of Crosses in the morning, Jesse and I continued north on our return back to Norway. We didn’t get very far before we made another stop though. Just across the boarder, back into Latvia we stopped to explore the famous Rundāle Palace (Rundāle Pils).

The palace and it’s grounds are maintained as a museum, but also can host wedding and other events like concerts and balls. There were not many visitors at the palace today, so the palace felt even bigger with it’s grand stairways and ball rooms. Jesse and I even snuck in a waltz in one of the ball rooms we had to ourselves. The walls were full of artwork, wall paper and elaborate reliefs, most dating to the mid 1700s. I really enjoyed looking at an old map in the library. The dining room was set for a 5-star reception, with billiards and backgammon to follow in the parlour.

Another wing of the palace had china sets, hand made laces and entire garments on display. There was also a family tree complete with coats of armour. And in the basement there were statues, door hinges and knockers that had been used over the years.

We didn’t spend much time walking through the gardens since it was raining, but the grounds were quite nice, despite being fall. The gardens in the back had lovely views of the palace, arches covered in grapevines, hidden vegetable gardens and even an antique playground. There are many palaces to explore in Latvia, too many to explore them all. But I’m really glad we had the time to explore Rundāle Pils.