Kraslaw formerly belonged to the Plater family. A palace and park complex was established on the hill that dominates the town. Descriptions in the literature bear witness to its wealth. Nowadays, the city authorities have partly revitalised it with European funds. The palace, however, is still awaiting restoration work.

Kraslaw - the city of the Plater family
In Polish Inflants, i.e. the southern part of Inflants which remained with the Republic of Poland after the Peace of Oliva ended the Swedish Deluge, there is the Kraslaw town situated on the Daugava River. In 1729, the heir to the nearby Indrycy, Jan Ludwik Broël-Plater, starosta of Dneburg and voivode of Livonia (c. 1690-1736), became its owner. He was one of the most prominent figures of his family. His son, Konstantin Louis (1722-1788), inherited the main family residence after his father's death.

Thanks to the owner's initiative, the town began to flourish as a centre of crafts and industry. New brick and wooden houses were built, and a town hall was constructed according to the design of Jan Valentine Dyderstein; mills, a brewery and a pharmacy were in operation. Craftsmen brought by Plater from Warsaw and Germany settled in the town. In the words of the eminent historian of Inflants, Gustav Manteuffel: "carpets of rare beauty, velvets, damask, percale, the most varied cloths, Polish cards, painting gold, sword and firearms, carriages, goldsmith and jeweller's wares were made here. All this was sold first at the four once famous local fairs, and later even exported to other provinces of the Republic and to Russia. However, Kraslaw, as far as the factory industry was concerned, collapsed completely at the first partition of the Republic of Poland".

Palace in Kras law
In the years 1765-1791, the palace and park complex in Kraslaw was built on the hill dominating the area, which also included the free-standing building of the first palace, which was turned into a library and water mill after the construction of the main building. The palace was designed by the Lombard architect, Antonio Paracca (1722-about 1780/1790). The main residence, located on top of a hill, is covered with a mansard roof that is rare in modern Latvia. The construction was completed when August Hyacinth Plater (1745-1803) was the owner of Kraslaw. In 1824, the palace was renovated, giving it features of classicist architecture.

In 1901, Gustaw Manteuffel mentioned that the palace "has an elegant interior and several valuable works of art, including the only historical painting by the well-known portraitist Bacciarelli. It depicts King John III at the battle of Vienna in 1683, and was painted for Vice-Chancellor Kazimierz Konstanty Plater as a result of an artistic discussion initiated at one of the famous Thursday dinners at the residence of King Stanislaw August, whom Kazimierz Konstanty Plater accompanied on a trip to Kaniów in 1789.

Park at the palace in Kraslaw
The extensive park, which was adorned with "green, well-tended lawns, century-old trees, rare exotic shrubs and flowers, and even an artificial cave, representing a medieval ruin on the outside" (G. Manteuffel), descending into the valley of the Krasławka river, which flows into the Dvina, is left with traces of old trees and the cave (or rather an artificial ruin) mentioned by Manteuffel. A former outbuilding houses the local regional museum (Krāslavas vēstures un mākslas muzejs; with a permanent exhibition "Krāslava un Plāteri" - "Kraslaw and the Platers").A crafts house was built in the former stables, and a tourist information centre in the gardener's house. The museum exhibition devoted to the Platers contains only a few original memorabilia related to the family and the palace.

In his memoirs, published in London, entitled. "Kraslaw", Fr Leon Broël-Plater (rector of the Polish Catholic Mission in New Zealand after the Second World War) wrote: "perhaps the most interesting sight is that which unfolds before the traveller when, arriving from Courland, he stands on the banks of the Dvina, waiting for the ferry to cross to that bank. He can see the whole of Kraslaw with his eye. To his left he sees the Theatre Hill, on top of which the old walls of the former theatre are visible. Closer, there is a deep ravine and again a slightly lower mountain with tall park trees, among which the central superstructure of the palace is visible. The chateau hill descends quite steeply towards the Krasławka river, passing into a wide valley planted with linden trees, between which the library walls whiten. On the other side of the river rises a third, even lower hill, on which there is a church surrounded on two sides by a monastery. And further to the right at the end of the panorama lies a valley hiding the town behind a curtain of trees".

The last heiress of Kraslav
The heiress of the Kraslaw fortune, Maria Platerowa (née Platerowa) and her spouse Gustav were the last owners of the palace. It was - as Leon Plater wrote - a marriage arranged in accordance with the wishes of Maria's guardian, the doyen of the family Eugeniusz Plater, who wanted Krasław to remain his surname.

Maria was born in 1862, daughter of Edward and Stefania Morykonianka, and granddaughter of Adam and Ludwika née Grabowska. She was the only heiress to the family estate. Her husband, and at the same time her cousin, Gustaw Plater, born in 1849, of the Kurkiel branch, son of Krzysztof and Elżbieta Cissowska, was an engineer by profession.

In their possession was the so-called 'Kraslaw Chronicle' and other family documents. In 1916, before the German invasion, the more valuable collections and memorabilia were sent from Kraslaw to St Petersburg for safety, where they were lost in 1917. It is worth mentioning that the library in Kraslaw contained some 30,000 volumes, a rich family archive (with correspondence dating back to the 17th century) and a large collection of engravings. In 1917-1919, after the October Revolution, the palace and library were looted and devastated. After 1920, the surviving remnants of the volumes from the once-rich plater book collection were moved to the library in Rzežice (Rēzekne).

After the First World War and the agrarian reform in Latvia, Maria and Gustav Plater finally left Kraslaw. After the death of her husband (he died in 1923 and was laid to rest in St. Michael's Cemetery in Riga), Maria Plater went to Spain. She died in Madrid in 1947. Gustav Plater's grave in Riga was preserved and restored in 2022 through the efforts of the Polonica Institute.

The Plater Palace in Kraslaw
In 1923, a Kraslaw secondary school was opened in the nationalised palace. In 1944 the school was renamed to a secondary vocational school, and workshops were set up in the old manor stables. In 1972, the school was moved from the palace building to a building at 25 Raina Street.

The palace became deserted and its gradual degradation began. Some work was carried out in 1984, including replacing the roof over the building. In recent years, the Kraslaw municipal authorities obtained, among other things, European funds for the revitalisation of the palace-park complex and the building was strengthened, plastered, and the window openings were secured. In 1984, remains of 18th-century paintings were discovered inside the palace, probably by Filippo Castaldi (1730-1814). However, there is currently no access to the inside and no restoration work has been undertaken for the time being.