G. Elias Jelgava History and Art Museum Muziejus

Located in the building – Academia Petrina, Jelgava.

In 1818, a private organization – the Kurzeme Literature and Art Society – established the Kurzeme Provincial Museum. At the end of 1898, it moved to a building specially designed for the museum, which was destroyed in the battles for Jelgava in the summer of 1944.

In December 1952, the museum was housed in the renovated Academia Petrina building, built as the first university in Latvia (1775). This is one of the few public buildings in Jelgava that has survived and been renovated after World War II.

In 1975, the museum, which considers itself the spiritual heir of the Courland Provincial Museum, was named after Gēderts Elias.

The museum features exhibitions about the history of Jelgava from prehistory to the present day and the great master of Latvian painting, Ģederts Elias.

The museum's exhibition "Wars and a Soldier through the Ages of Jelgava" is just a small glimpse into the wars that affected Jelgava up until World War II.

The exhibition "Life Continues Under Foreign Power" introduces life in Jelgava under Soviet and German occupation.

Jelgava lost almost everything in the summer of 1944 – a large part of its population and the city's historical buildings, which were hardly restored after World War II. The museum's exhibits allow you to see how beautiful Jelgava was and how life in the city went.