Rundale Palace (Ruhenthal) with its garden is the most distinguished Baroque and Rococo monument in latvia. It was built between 1736 and 1740 as a summer residence for the duke of courland, ernst Johann Biron. It was designed by the Russian court architect Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli who also designed the garden. The stables, from the 1760’s, were designed by the courland court architect Severin Jensen. The interior decorations were created between 1764 and 1768. Johann Michael Graff handcrafted the stucco, and carlo Zucchi and Francesco Martini created the ceiling and wall paintings.

After 1795 Rundale was owned successively by the Russian noble families Zubov and Shuvalov. In 1920 it was taken over by the latvian government.