Jurbarkas Manor

Here, in a beautiful park, on the left bank of Mituva, Duke Vasilčikovas built a stylish palace, as well as expanded the park and built a red brick fence around it. Two more houses, known as annexes or wings, were built near the main palace.

The southern annex houses the Jurbarkas Tourism and Business Information Centre, while the northern one is used by the Jurbarkas Regional Museum. Jurbarkas Exhibition and Concert Hall is established in the Orthodox Church. In 2015, columns of the central palace of the estate were rebuilt. 

In the 16th–18th century, Jurbarkas belonged to the wives of the rulers of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (Bona Sforca, Ona Habsburgaitė, Cecilija Renata, Liudvika Marija). At the beginning of the 18th century, Augustas II appointed Radvila (Radziwiłł) family to rule Jurbarkas. However, in 1795, Catherine the Great gave it away to Platonas Zubovas, and, in 1846, Nicholas I gifted Jurbarkas to Vasilčikovai family who built a manor garden. Vasilčikovai lived in the manor until 1918, when the estate was sold.

Today, the park includes two symmetrically situated former manor workshops (central palace wings) of the Late Classical Period. Jurbarkas Regional Museum can be found within the manor estate. It is established in the newly repaired northern workshop adapted for the needs of the museum. The building is made of bricks, with a two-storey attic. The interior of the building preserved its ornate wood decor. During the repair works, overlays of the annex roofs were restored. Carved wooden ceilings were preserved. Wooden floors were installed in the museum’s collections storage room.

Today, the park of the former manor is narrowly stretched along the left bank of Mituva River. The park with its gently undulating terrain covers an area of 30 ha and has a mixed layout. The geometrically arranged central part of the park has a circular parterre surrounded by the loop of the access alley stretching from the east to the west. A four-column portico stands behind the parterre at the centre of this alley, reminiscent of the palace that once stood here, but was destroyed during World War I. Dense trees grow to the north of the central part of the park. A long, wide and curved pedestrian alley stretches along the northern edge of the park. It merges with the alley surrounding the park from the east. A geometric field leans onto the southern border of the park where soldiers killed during World War II were buried.

The pinewood located on the right bank of Mituva River can be reached via a pedestrian bridge.

A wide meadow stretches behind the trees naturally growing on the bank, which surrounds the forest park array of winding contours and expressive silhouettes.

A large part of manor park trees are comprised of maples, lime trees, birches, oaks and hornbeams. A lot of European larches grow near the alley. There are also foreign trees growing on the edge of the forest park.

Sources:

1. http://jurbarkas.info/