Jurbarkas Manor was a former residential manor in Jurbarkas, Lithuania. The main manor house, destroyed in World War I, no longer exists.
The Jurbarkas Tourism and Business Information Center is located in the southern building, and the Jurbarkas Regional Museum in the northern one. Jurbarkas Exhibition and Concert Hall is located in the church. In 2015 the columns of the central palace of the manor were restored.
History
Ruled by Queens
From the 14th century the area of Jurbarkas was a royal holding given by the Lithuanian rulers to their wives: queens Bona Sforza, Cecilia Renata and Marie Louise Gonzaga. The most famous of them was Bona Sforza (1494-1557), the wife of Grand Duke of Lithuania, Sigismund I the Old (1467-1548).
Radziwiłł, Czartoryski and Potocki
Later the manor belonged to members of Radziwiłł family: Ludwik Radziwiłł and Jan Mikołaj Radziwiłł.
In 1685, the son of Prince Aleksander Ludwik Radziwiłł (1594-1654), Vice Chancellor of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania Prince Dominik Mikołaj Radziwiłł (1643–1697) and his wife Anna Marianna Połubienska (1650-1690), became the rulers of Jurbarkas.
Jurbarkas town was destitute from the late 17th century to the early 18th century. Plague and famine killed many people; and many people died during the battle between the Sapieha and the Ogiński families. The Lithuanian Civil War (1700) and the Great Northern War (1700-1721) took further toll on the area.
On April 6, 1710, Mikołaj’s son, Jan Radziwiłł (1681-1729) was the ruler of Jurbarkas. He and his wife Dorota (1682-1755) were bestowed with perpetual rights to govern the lands of Jurbarkas and Virbalis, which was followed by various disagreements over power.
Soon the town was taken over by Michał and Eleonora Czartoryski, who were also granted the perpetual right of governance. However, they were also forced to resign the governance.
From 1774, Jurbarkas was given to Count Ignacy Potocki (1750-1809) and Elżbieta Potocka née Lubomirska (1755-1783).
Wars of the first half of the 18th century, ceaseless movements and deployments of armies continued to destroy the town.
Following the Third Polish Partition
Count Platon Zubov (1767-1822) After the fall of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Russian Empress Catherine the Great gave Jurbarkas to Count Platon Zubov. Zubov was the last of Catherine’s favourites and the most powerful man in the Russian Empire during the last years of her reign. It was probably during Zubov’s time that the stone two-storey Neoclassical mansion with single-storey side risalites was built.
In 1796, after the death of Catherine the Great and the ascension of Tsar Paul I, Platon Zubov was relieved of all his posts, stripped of his estates and exiled to Germany.
The Vassiltchikov Family
General Hilarion Vassiltchikov (1776–1847) In 1845 Tsar Nicholas I took Jurbarkas from the Zubov family and gave it to General Hilarion Vassiltchikov.
The Vassiltchikov family (Rus: Васильчиков) were a rich, famous and influential family in Tsarist Russia. They owned vast areas of land across Russia and the Ukraine. Many Vasilchikovs were famous military officers and public figures.
General Hilarion Vassiltchikov normally visited Jurbarkas from St. Petersburg only for the summer. Vassiltchikov encircled the estate with a high red brick wall (fragments and gate posts still survive), and two stone servants’ quarters were built (or rebuilt). Servants lived in the south building: the more elegantly outfitted north building was designated for the owners and guests. A former liquor storehouse beside this building was renovated into a small Orthodox Church in 1865. To the west, agricultural and administrative buildings were built, further from the Mituva River.
General Ilarion Illarionovich Vassiltchikov (1805-1862) After Hilarion's death, Jurbarkas was split into two parts and inherited by his two sons.
Jurbarkas was later transferred solely to one of the sons, General Ilarion Illarionovich Vassiltchikov. Although Ilarion Vassiltchikov and his wife Yekaterina (1818-1869) used to come to Jurbarkas from St. Petersburg only in summer, they took good care of the estate.
Colonel Sergei Vassiltchikov (1849-1926) After the death of Duke Ilarion Vassiltchikov in 1862, Jurbarkas was taken over by his son Sergei Vassiltchikov, guard colonel and a person well-known in the Russian Tsar's court.