Jelgava
Capital of Courland (1578-1795), a duchy that colonized Caribbean islands. Rastrelli's palace (674 windows) housed fleeing French kings, then burned twice.
Jelgava was the capital of Courland—a duchy that once colonized Trinidad, Tobago, and Gambia. The Livonian Order built a castle here in 1265; when the order dissolved in 1561, the Kettler dukes made it their seat. For 234 years (1578-1795), Jelgava governed a Baltic duchy with Atlantic ambitions.
Ernst Johann Biron replaced the medieval castle with Jelgava Palace, the largest Baroque building in the Baltic states. Rastrelli designed it: 674 windows, 615 doors, 669 rooms. When Catherine the Great absorbed Courland in 1795, the palace became a refuge for French royalty fleeing revolution. Louis XVIII lived here (1798-1800, 1804-1807).
The 20th century was catastrophic. Bermontians looted and burned the palace in 1919. The Wehrmacht and Red Army destroyed most of the city in 1944—some of the heaviest urban fighting in the Baltic campaign.
Today Jelgava is "the Student Capital of Latvia"—the University of Life Sciences occupies what dukes once ruled. By 2026, the challenge is whether a city defined by destruction can build new identity beyond reconstruction narratives.