Jelgava History and Art Museum of Ģ. Eliass Museum

Jelgava History and Art Museum of Ģ. Eliass is located in a building that is called Academia Petrina (Peter’s Academy). It was built in 1775 as the first university in Latvia and is one of the few public buildings in Jelgava to survive and be restored after World War II. In the summer of 1944, Jelgava lost almost everything – a large part of its population and historic buildings, which were hardly restored after World War II. The predecessor of the current museum – the Kurzeme Provincial Museum – was founded in 1818. It was the second oldest museum in Latvia and the first one established outside Riga. The museum has been housed in the Academia Petrina building since 1952. Today, the museum features permanent exhibitions on the renowned Latvian artist Ģederts Eliass (1887–1975), the prehistory and Middle Ages of the Zemgale region, Jelgava during the era of the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia (1561–1795), the Courland Governorate (1795–1918), and the period of Latvia’s independence (1918–1940).

The museum exhibition “Life Continues Under Foreign Rule” explores life in Latvia during the German and Soviet occupations. The virtual exhibition “Wars and a Soldier Through the Ages of Jelgava” offers insight into the various wars that have affected Jelgava, including historical events from the First and Second World Wars.