Rudbārži Palace (, ) is a palace in Rudbārži Parish, Kuldīga Municipality in the Courland region in Latvia.
History The estate was, from 16th century to 1661, owned by the family of Eberhard von GoesThe oldest ancestor of the family is Eberhard von Goes, a landowner in Kurland in the 16th century. The nobility of the family was confirmed in a letter by Duke Jacob of Livland in 1670. The genealogy The noble tables of the Swedish nobility states that the family originally came from Portugal and was related to Dionysius Goës and cardinal Johannes von Goës. According to this family line, the family would have come to Kurland with Teutonic Order, and from 1778 till 1920 by the von Fircks noble family. Lost Places & Unlost Places Baltikum Kurland, Lettland L - R. Rudbahren - Rudbarzi, Kurland - Lettland Schloss Rudbahren was originally built (within the Courland Governorate) in 1835 for Baroness Thea von Fircks and was remodeled in 1882–1883. The structure was severely damaged by a fire set by revolutionaries in 1905 but rebuilding began in 1908.Alberts Zarāns, Latvijas pilis un muižas (Castles and Manors of Latvia), (Riga 2006), .
During the Latvian independence struggle of 1919, Rudbārži Palace was a base for the Oskars Kalpaks Battalion (the 1st Latvian Independent Battalion). The bodies of Kalpaks himself and other officers who fell in the actions of March 1919 against the Bolsheviks were brought from the place of skirmish to lie in the Hall. In 1937 a rest home for Latvian soldiers was established there,Latvijas Kareivis, 27 August 1937: see Zane Lāce, 'Rudbāržu muiža 1919. gada Brīvības cīņās, senākos un jaunākos laikos', LSM LV (Latvian Public Media), 5 March 2017. and a commemorative plaque was unveiled on the building. Following further destruction in 1938, there was a second reconstruction. During World War Two the palace served as a German field hospital, and was further damaged, and after the War it was used as a school for forestry workers.
From 1962 until 2017 the palace housed the Rudbārži Elementary School, which took on the name of the Oskars Kalpaks Elementary School. The commemorative plaque was rediscovered and remounted in its former position in recent years.'Castles and manors: The Rudbārži estate', Lauku Ceļotājs: no. 30375. The building has been granted state protection as a Cultural Monument for its association with Kalpaks: the domed oval hall has been restored at great expense and renamed the "Heroes' Hall".Inga Ozola, 'Rudbāržu pamatskolā restaurē Varoņu zāli', LSM LV (Latvian Public Media), 19 September 2016.
The school closed owing to lack of pupils in 2017 and the house became a military centre for the New Guard. Rudbārži Palace
See also List of palaces and manor houses in Latvia
References