Jelgava Gymnasium

During World War I, the school was evacuated to Taganrog in Rostov Oblast while its 42,000-volume library was burned by troops of Pavel Bermondt-Avalov.

The original building was later restored and now functions as the Ģederts Eliass [lv] Jelgava History and Art Museum.

The establishment of the academy was based on an idea by Friedrich Wilhelm von Raison: "But the whole province owes him excellent thanks for the effective part, which he took at the foundation of the Mitauian Gymnasium.

He was actually the one who persuaded Duke Peter to do so; it was he who corresponded with Sulzern regarding the plan to be drawn up and because of the appointment of the first teachers and he who prescribed the books for the library and the instruments for the observatory; just as he also continuously participated in the perfection of the institute until his death".

Under the law of Poland a university could not be founded without the consent and confirmation of the Pope, and it was unclear whether and when the permission by the papal curia to establish a Protestant theological faculty could have been obtained.