Zypliai Manor

The history of the current Zypliai Manor begins from the Old Zypliai Manor, which, since 1807, was the property of the Grand Duke of Lithuania who received it for his war merits with Napoleon's army.

When Juozapas Poniatovskis died in 1813, the estate became the property of his sister Marija Teresė Tiškevičienė. The new owner of Zypliai Manor did not even see the estate, because she lived in Paris. The entire area of 155 villages and around 300 Wallach forests was known as the property of Zypliai, while Zypliai estate was comprised of a small manor with around 60 margas (ancient land measurement unit) of land.

Due to shortage of money in around 1845–1855, Teresė sold the manor to the landlord of Polotsk governorate Jonas Bartkovskis who built a new manor near Lukšiai and named it the Naujieji Zypliai (New Zypliai). The location where the palace was built was called Palankiai – the landlord aimed to live peacefully with the locals.

After Jonas Bartkovskis died, the manor became the property of his stepdaughter Joana Volfersaitė-Kučinskienė who did not live in the manor and only visited it twice: when it was being built and when its church was consecrated.

Later on, Zypliai became the property of Liudvika Ostrovskienė. She sold the Naujieji Zypliai (New Zypliai) to Count Tomas Potockis who remodelled the estate from the ground up in 1891–1901 by adding two-storey wings to the single-storey palace, created a western part of the park and built roads-alleys bordering the park.

In around 1897, all wooden outbuildings of the estate burned down due to a steam machine, thus brick outbuildings were built in their place.

The count suddenly died in Warsaw in 1912, and was transported back to Zypliai. After his death, the estate was managed by the count's wife until World War II.

A priest seminary was transferred here from Seinai (Sejny) in 1919, and an agriculture school was established later on. During the war and post-war period, there was a hospital operating on the estate, as well as a collective farm office and a district executive committee.

In 2002, manor maintenance and restoration works began under the care of Lukšiai town elder Vidas Cikana. The restored manor was opened in 2012. Zanavykai Museum was established in 2014, in the former carriage house of the estate. The manor currently exhibits many works of art: paintings, hand-crafted items, wood and stone sculptures, pottery, blacksmithing works and glassware. This place is often used to hold concerts, performances, open-air events and camps. Around 10 thousand guests visit the manor each year.

Exhibition areas were installed inside the manor, in its former stables, in the left chamber and barn gallery. A number of art works are continuously exhibited here: paintings, hand-crafted items, wood and stone sculptures, pottery, blacksmithing and glassware works, spectacular gardens and masks. Temporary exhibitions of folk artists and professionals are also organized. There is a forge in one of the farm buildings of the manor, and a pottery workshop in another building.

Zypliai Manor hosts a number of annual events such as Pažaislis music festival concerts, music festival "Summers of Beatričė" (Beatričės vasaros) concerts, traditional choir festival "Farewell summer" (Vasarą palydint), professional performer concerts; traditional folk artist symposium "Zypliai grasshoppers" (Zyplių žiogai), various painter, watercolourist, blacksmith, potter symposiums, ceramist festival-fair "I shall buy a clay pot" (Pirksiu molio puodynę); night film screenings in the film festival "Night of the silver crane" (Sidabrinės gervės naktys), theatre festivals, folk band festivals, camps for film creators and traditional dancing, Catholic youth camps, as well as various camps for children and youth.

Zypliai Manor ensemble is surrounded by one of the largest parks in Lithuania which covers an area of 21 ha. Originally, in the middle of the 19th century, this area only had local trees. Later on, Count Potockis dug two ponds, planted exotic trees and shrubs, as well as built a conservatory, arbours and aviaries for pheasants. The parterre in front of the palace had a fountain and two bridges stretching through the channels. Currently, the park has a number of various types of valuable trees: sycamore and silver maples, common and red oaks, white and balsam poplars, European and Russian larches, black pines, silver firs, warty and downy birches, mountain elms and cork elms. A balsam poplar alley, which is around 200 m long, was planted in the western part. Linden, ash, hornbeam and oak alleys function as the borders of the manor estate. The Oak of Zypliai that grew in the park of the estate was declared a natural monument. However, it fell in 2008 after reaching the age of around 420 years (its trunk diameter was 630 cm, while its height was 34 m) and was left to lay there.

Sources:

1. https://www.sakiaitic.lt
2. http://zypliudvaras.lt