HISTORY
The Count Plater Library is privately owned. According to experts, this 18th-century architectural monument is well preserved. Although the history of the palace was full of tumultuous events (a victorious march of Napoleon’s Grande Armée through Latgale in 1812, the battles of the First and Second World Wars, numerous changes of governing states), it is well preserved, providing historical evidence to this day.
The origins of the Count Plater family can be traced back to medieval Germany, Westphalia, when in 1210 the Knight of Westphalia Humbert von Plater was first mentioned in the chronicles. The ancestors of the Platers came to the Baltics with the Crusaders. Settling in Latgale, they assimilated and accepted Polish culture. Over time, the Platers became one of the most important families in Latgale. Their properties were located not only in Latgale, but also in Vidzeme and Kurzeme, as well as in Poland and Lithuania. During the Platers times, the town Kraslava flourished.
In 1729, Jan Ludwig Plater, the starasta of Latgale and Daugavpils, bought Kraslava from the Chapski family for 14,000 tallers. In the same year he moved from the Indrica Manor to the Kraslava Manor, which later on belonged to his descendants for almost two hundred years.
In 1729, Konstantin Ludwig Plater inherited the Kraslava Manor from his father Jan Ludwig Plater. The next owner was August Hyacinth, the son of Konstantin Ludwig. The last owner of the manor was Gustav Christoph Plater and his wife Marija Plater. The manor ensemble comprises two palaces - the old and the new.
In 1759, Count Konstantin Ludwig Plater completed the construction of a new Baroque–style three-story stone building for his son Theophilus, a knight of the Order of Malta. Theophilus used to live on the first floor of the building. The upper floors were occupied by an impressive library of the Platers, after which this first palace got its later name. In the historical literature, this building is also referred to as the Old Palace. The building was designed by Genoa architect Antonio Ludovico Parocco in collaboration with Jan Valentin Didreishten, architect of the Kraslava Town Hall. The three-story cube-shaped building is one of the fine examples of the Baroque style in Latvian architecture. The center of its main façade is decorated with an oval avant-corps with columns on both sides as well as pilasters on the park side. The profiled cornice highlights the facade elements.
The library boasted about 20 thousand volumes, various atlases, and manuscripts. Among the most valuable manuscripts was the 16-volume “History of the Kingdom of Poland” written by Kazimir Konstantin Plater (1749-1807), Vice-Chancellor of Lithuania, Ambassador of the King of Poland in St. Petersburg from 1766. However, none of these precious volumes have survived. In addition, the library also contained a large number of engravings and ancient maps. In the 19th century, most of the family library items were transferred to another Plater family property. However, the family was not able to preserve the property, which came into its possession, and the sale of the library was started. A small part of the library items was returned to the library of Kraslava Palace and to the Platers of Kombuli. During the First World War, the library was destroyed, but some accidentally preserved volumes ended up in the Rezekne library after 1920. Until 1775, in the palace library, there were portraits of Konstantin Ludwig Plater and his wife Augusta (1724 - 1788), painted by Roman painter F. Castaldi on canvas, which were later transferred to the church.
A beautiful baroque-style landscape park garden was created near the library on both sides of the building. Divided into smaller triangle parts by diagonal and transverse paths the charming park was enclosed by the linden hedge. The road between the parterre and the boskets led to the Daugava road, on the side of which there was a square.
Some words about the town of Kraslava, which flourished in the 18th century. After the annexation of Latgale to Russia, Kraslava became the center of the county, but in the 20-ies of the 19th century, its importance declined when the most important authorities and administrative institutions left for Daugavpils. Kraslava became merely a center of Polish culture and community - many families of Latgale’s Polish gentry and aristocrats from near and far owned houses here. Once a year due to carnival celebration proud representatives of the Polish aristocracy and wealthy landowners flocked to Kraslava. The Great Ball took place in the two-story hall of the library, which brought together representatives of Latgale, Kurzeme, Lithuania, and Belarus. So it is no wonder that a small town of Kraslava boasts a number of architectural monuments of the18th -19th centuries, which in terms of their architectural and artistic qualities can be compared to related ensembles in Poland, Lithuania, and elsewhere.
There is an inscription on the coat of arms of the Plater family “Melior Mors Macula” (Better Death Than Blemish). During the Plater times the town flourished. An impressive palace, farm buildings, churches as well as a Town Hall were built. Craftsmen from Poland and Germany were invited to start velvet and tuft weaving, jewelry production as well as manufacturing of furnace tiles and playing cards in Kraslava.
From the book “Around Latgale” L.Teivan, 1988:
“In the library building, there was a monastery school for orphans and children from poor families. The three-story building is decorated with a gracefully curved central risalit in Baroque style. The corners of the building are decorated with pilasters. The first floor is more like a huge plinth with an elegant two-story baroque villa. The exterior of the library reflects its internal solution: the two upper “floors” inside were not separated by a floor structure. There was a wooden gallery with bookshelves along the top row of windows. The library building now houses a secondary school building”.
From the book “Kraslava. Years. People. Events” - Kraslava County Council, 2003:
“After 1920 a post office was located in the building of the Count Plater Library, later a six-grade Latvian primary school was established there”.
From the book “History of Kraslava District Schools” - Kraslava District School Board, 1997, p.65-66 pp:
“In 1944 Kraslava Secondary School No. 2 started working in Kraslava with Russian as the language of instruction. There were 22 employees. The school was located in two premises: in the former Count Plater Library at Pushkin Street and in a two-storey wooden house in the park (not preserved). ”
There has also been an evening school in the building of the Kraslava Count Platers’ Library.
In the end of the 90-ies of the 20th the building housed the Kraslava Children Library.
From the newspaper “Ezerzeme” of January 5, 1999:
“The library was founded on September 10, 1951. Since then, the premises in the primary school building will be its 8th home. Librarians hope for a longer period of work here. There are incomparably better working conditions than in the previous place - in the house Nr.13 on Count Plater Street, where the children library has been operating for the last 5 years.”
How the first school in Latgale was formed and developed // “Pašvaldības Balss”, Nr.4 (01.04.1938):
“Later, the school was named Kraslava County School, it was with 6 grades and with the right of gymnasium. The owner of Kraslava town, Count Plater has provided his library premises for the needs of the school, the said premises were redesigned for the purpose later on. According to a law issued by the Russian government in 1828, the county schools were reorganized and were to remain with 4 grades, but in 1836 the Russian government took over the Kraslava county school entirely in its management and maintenance. The school was managed by the St. Petersburg schooling district and its immediate authority was the Vitebsk Provincial School Board. The number of school pupils has decreased significantly:
children of 17 noblemen, 2 citizens, and of 1 farmer.
Starting from 1843, the school was renamed Kraslava 3 grade school with the right of gymnasium. The following subjects were taught in the county school: the teaching of religion to Catholics and Orthodox, Russian, Latin, French and German, mathematics, history, geography, drawing and technical drawing. As students who graduated from a 3-grade county school enjoyed the right to enlist in the civil service under the laws of the time, with the aim to meet the demands of some citizen groups, the school has begun to acquire all county school rights which were granted by law in 1849. So in 1855 the school was transferred to the county town of Rezekne, and renamed the Rezekne County School. The relocation of the school was probably related to the fact that the St. Petersburg-Warsaw highway had already been built, which made it possible to get to Rezekne much more easily even from more remote areas - for example, according to the school records students from Minsk province also attended the school. It should be noted that before the transfer of the school to Rezekne, there was a great deal of controversy among the noblemen. One group of nobles with Count Plater in the lead wanted the school to remain in Kraslava, and the others wanted to relocate it to Rezekne”.
Office for the Restoration of Cultural Monuments of the Ministry of Culture of the Latvian SSR. The historical center of Kraslava city. Pre-project research. Volume 1, 1985:
"The building mentioned in the explanation of the 1825 city plan is defined as a theater”.
“The photo from the beginning of the century, which is the oldest image of the small palace at our disposal, shows the extension of log trees on the right side of the building. The extension is narrow and ends at the second floor level of the palace. ”
“Later photos show that the extension was bricked and white plastered over time. Also today, you can see the windows on the first and second floors of the extension, which were not present in the wooden version. There are currently school toilets there.”
“A photo from the beginning of the century shows that the palace (library) had a four-sloped tiled roof, as well as a wide boulder porch, which has disappeared over time. The tiled roofing has also been replaced with tin. The main façade of the building has a distinct three-wing division. The central part is curved. On the second and third floor levels, in the central part of the small palace, pilasters are placed between the windows, crowned by capitals with volutes. The curved part ends with columns, decorated in the same way as pilasters. The first floor of the building is designed as a rusticated plinth”.