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The Grand Palace

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Explore the visionary mind of Vladislav Tiškevičius, the great art collector who reconstructed the manor in 1890 with a striking neo-Gothic palace, featuring richly decorated façades, towering buttresses, and a six-storey tower. Discover the secrets of its mystical allure!
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About The Grand Palace
Lentvaris Manor was established 18 km from Vilnius Around the 18th century. There is no precise information about the first owners of the manor and the manor complex itself. The only information is the memoirs of Zofija Tiškevičiūtė-Potocka. In the 18th century the owner of the manor was Tomáš Sapiega, in the beginning of the 19th century - N. Dambrovskis. In 1819, by a court decision, the manor was divided between A. Lappas, Šachnų and Hrinevičiūtė. The court report states that the manor contained a mill, two barns, a gate, a stone house, etc. The present manor complex stands on the territory that belonged to the Šachns. The 1848 inventory of the manor shows that the manor belongs to the minor children Bronislav, Ludwik and Vladislav Shakhns and is in a satisfactory condition. The estate consists of a farmhouse, a village, six lakes and about 388 ha of land. In 1850 the estate was bought by Count Juozas Tiškevičius. The last owner of the manor was Count Eugenijus Tiškevičius in 1936, who ruled the manor until 1939. The current owner of the manor, his son Eugenijus Tiškevičius, lives in the USA. The manor buildings are not mentioned before the middle of the 19th century, which suggests that the manor was built only during the reign of Juozas Tiškevičius. The manor stands on the northern shore of Lake Lentvaris, which was artificially created by building a dike across the lake. The sand was quarried from the Lentvaris hill, which is still called Roskopana Gora. At the beginning of the 20th century, at the end of the embankment, where three roads intersect, there was a tall cast-iron pole with a hanging lantern. The manor was built in two phases, with Gustav Šachno in charge of construction from 1865 to 1866. The palace was a two- or three-storey building with a wide driveway in front, a tall tower with a crenellation on the south-west side and a lower two-storey wing on the other side. The façade faced the lake. Everything was covered with trees. The second phase took place in 1890, when Vladislav Tiškevičius, a great art connoisseur and collector, had the idea of reconstructing the manor. According to the recollections of his daughter, Zofija Tiškevičiūtė-Potocka, this was done by 1899. The representative palace was replaced by a more practical, compact palace with striking neo-Gothic forms. The palace was of red clay brick, with richly decorated façades, two storeys high, with three- to four-storey buttresses and a six-storey tower. There were also two-storey stables, a barn with four turrets, a two-storey theatre with two sculptures of the Atlantic, a three-storey tower (the bathing house), which is now a museum, and other buildings. In 1915, Russian troops were stationed here and ravaged the estate. Vladislovas Tiškevičius took all the valuable exhibits to Russia, where they disappeared. Only the objects hidden in the Tiškevičius Palace in Vilnius survived, but they were taken to the Senator Street Palace in Warsaw and burnt during the uprising. Due to economic difficulties, the Tiškevičius did not rebuild the palace between the wars and the building was conserved. After 1945, the palace passed to the Lentvaris Carpet Factory. At that time, the third floor between the buttresses was built on and the roof was replaced. In addition to the palace, there were many outbuildings on the estate, which have survived to this day. The 12.7 ha park has a grotto, a rock imitation made of reinforced concrete, two viaducts and an artificial river cascade made of stones. The Lentvaris Carpet Factory still operates in the manor complex.