Bauska Castle Museum Opens the Tourist Season!

Bauska Castle Museum Opens the Tourist Season

On Saturday, 2 May, Bauska Castle Museum will open the new tourist season in the restored castle rooms. A special new feature will be the exhibited portraits of the Dukes of Courland Jacob (1610–1682), Friedrich Casimir (1650–1698), Ferdinand (1655–1737), Duchess Louise Charlotte (1617–1676), and Princess Maria Amalia (1653–1711).

Since the Renaissance, galleries of ancestors’ portraits were created in the castles and manors of high-born persons. Unfortunately, most of the surviving portraits of the Dukes of Courland are located in different places—in European museums or private collections. The portraits exhibited at Bauska Castle were created by painter, restorer, and professor at the Art Academy of Latvia Andris Začests, based on originals held in the State Portrait Collection of the Nationalmuseum of Sweden in Gripsholm. The portraits entered the collection in the first half of the 18th century as a gallery of family portraits belonging to Frederick I, King of Sweden and Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, the son of Princess Maria Amalia of Courland.

From 1 May to 30 September, Bauska Castle Museum will be open every day from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. The restored residence wing of the Courland Dukes of the Kettler dynasty features exhibitions of castle interiors and history, as well as the exhibitions “Costume and Jewellery in the Duchy of Courland, 1562–1620” and “Bauska Castle—a Military Fortress.” Everyone will have the opportunity to enjoy the atmosphere of the Middle Ages, view the ruins of the Livonian Order castle and climb the observation tower.

Until 18 May, the castle will host an exhibition of marionettes from productions by the Puppet Theatre: “Which of Us Is Tangled Up?”, “Carmen: A Woman’s Version,” “Casanova,” and “The Three Little Pigs and the Wolf.” Marionette puppets experienced their golden age during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

From 30 April to 30 May, Bauska Castle Museum will host an exhibition of paintings by the classic artist and distinguished landscape painter Jānis Gunārs Kalnmalis, “Views of Europe.” The painter is one of the few contemporary artists who paints directly from nature, not only in Latvia but also elsewhere in Europe.

Bauska Castle is a unique Latvian architectural monument that characterises the architecture of military and representational structures in the territory of Latvia from the 15th to the 17th centuries. Its oldest part is the only Livonian Order fortress built for the use of firearms, while its newer part is a fortified residence-type castle. It is the only architectural monument in Latvia that illustrates manifestations of Renaissance and Mannerist castle architecture and decorative art in the Duchy of Courland (1562–1795), as well as the only partially preserved residence of the first Dukes of Courland–Semigallia, the Kettler dynasty. Earthworks built around the castle according to the French system during the Great Northern War under the supervision of King Charles XII of Sweden have survived. The castle complex is surrounded by a picturesque landscape with three rivers.

More information about the services offered by Bauska Castle Museum is available at www.bauskaspils.lv.