For this tour you will travel in an air conditioned vehicle with a guide.
Leave Riga for the day and travel to the grandiose Rundale Palace, built in the 18th century as the summer residence of the Duke of Courland, Ernest Johann von Biron.
The construction was inaugurated in 1736 and as von Biron was favored by the Russian Czarina, Anna Ivanovna, he succeeded in engaging the Italian architect, Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli, the main architect of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg.
Having recently undergone extensive renovation, 40 rooms on the first and second floors with original interior and furniture are open to the public. You will have plenty of time to explore these rooms at your leisure.
According to history, the construction was interrupted in 1738 when von Biron and Rastrelli inaugurated the construction of an even larger residence in the Courland capital of Jelgava. When Czarina Anna Ivanova died in 1740 von Biron was exiled and could return accompanied by Rastrelli only in 1763 when he was reinstated by the Russian empress Catherina the 2nd. The palace and the interior was therefore only completed in 1763-1768 and it was fairly devastated in the course of time and in 1972 a comprehensive restoration of the palace was started.
The tour ends at your hotel.