Tuskulėnai Manor

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Drawing of the Tuskulėnai Manor in 1848

Tuskulėnai Manor (Lithuanian: Tuskulėnų dvaras) is a manor in Žirmūnai elderate of Vilnius, Lithuania.

1 Structures
2 History
3 References

[edit] Structures

Tuskulėnai Manor is the oldest architectural monument in Žirmūnai. The present manor was built in 1825, following a design by Karol Podczaszyński in the neoclassical style, under the order of the Governor General of Lithuania, Alexander Rimsky-Korsakov. It consists of the principal building - the palace, a storage house, and several adjacent buildings, including a small eclectic chapel of St. Theresa, located approximately 100 metres south of the principal building.^[1]

The palace is the main architectural accent of the ensemble. Typical Podczaszyński's serlianas - three interconnected windows - have been employed in the façades of the main palace. Three statues used to stand on a frontone, but were removed later on. The interior was decorated with the works of Dutch painters Isaac van Ostade, Adriaen van Ostade, Gerard Dou and others. The palace also boasted a rich library.^[2] The buildings were surrounded by a large park.

All of these structures are currently undergoing restoration, and will be part of Peace Park (Rimties parkas), which is scheduled for completion in 2007. The 7.5-hectare park will include the restored Tuskulėnai Manor, which will host a museum of martyrology in Lithuania in the second half of the 20th century (a branch of the Lithuanian Genocide Victims Museum), restored ponds and park vegetation, as well as the columbarium.

[edit] History

[edit] Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

In the area on the right bank of the Neris River opposite the St. Peter and St. Paul's Church in Antakalnis, the Royal Manor, so called Derevnictva (Polish: Derewnictwo), was established in the middle 16th century by the King Sigismund Augustus in order to service Vilnius Castles. The manor was held by the kings Sigismund III Vasa and Władysław IV Vasa, nobleman M. Pieglowski, the Valavičiai family, Grand Hetman of Lithuania Michał Kazimierz Pac, as well as the Tyzenhaus family (since 1741). The manor was named Tusculanum after a resort area near Rome [1] in the place of the ancient Roman city of Tusculum (see also: Villa Rufinella) by Lateran monks, who owned the manor in the middle 18th century. In the end of the century, the manor was separated into the folwarks of Tuskulėnai, based on the kernel of the old royal manor, and Derevnictva.^[3]

[edit] Russian Empire

Under the rule of the Russian Empire in the 19th century, Tuskulėnai Manor was held by various noble families and high-ranking state officials, including the Governor General of Lithuanian-Vilnius Guberniya, Alexander Rimsky-Korsakov. In the mid-19th century the main palace was transformed into a guesthouse that became a cultural center in Vilnius, often visited by Stanislaw Moniuszko and Józef Ignacy Kraszewski.^[4] The manor passed into the possession of Julija Safranovich after 1886, and then was held by the noble family of Melentjevy until World War II.

[edit] Soviet rule

Tuskulėnai Manor had been nationalised in 1940 and used by the KGB as officers' apartments and as a kindergarden. During excavations that took place between 1994 and 1996 in its territory, the remains of 706 bodies were found; 40 were identified.^[5] The area had been used to hide the bodies of Lithuanian residents - mostly resistance fighters against the Soviet occupation as well as Nazi collaborators and felons - who had been executed in the Vilnius KGB Palace between 1944 and 1947. The remains of Armia Krajowa soldiers were also found. The remains from the mass grave were placed in a columbarium, built and consecrated in 2004. The columbarium was constructed underground, beneath an artificial hill. The manor and its surroundings are now being incorporated into a Peace Park.

The area surrounding the Tuskulėnai Manor was referred to as Tuskulėnai (Russian: Tuskuljany^[6]; Polish: Tuskulanum^[7]) until the World War II. This area was also known by a colloquial placename Losiovka, named after Army General of the Russian Empire A. Losev who owned the folwark of Tuskulėnai in 1869.