Manor Houses of the Rokiškis Region: Four Worth Seeing

Rokiškis Manor

Tyzenhauzų al. 5 · On the map

This late classicist palace is one of the most valuable ensembles of its kind in Lithuania. Inside is the Rokiškis Regional Museum, which holds the surviving collection of the Counts Tyzenhauzas: furniture, clothing, personal belongings, works of applied art. The impression is as if the owners left only a minute ago.

The estate wing houses an exhibition of Lionginas Šepka’s wood carvings. Šepka was a self-taught folk sculptor from the Rokiškis region, and his work is the main reason this museum is known beyond the district.

The museum also has two programmes you wouldn’t expect from a provincial manor. The first is a virtual reality film about Sofija Tyzenhauzaitė, the first woman writer in historical Lithuania, who described meetings with Napoleon and Tsar Alexander I in her diaries. The second is a session in the manor’s original ice house, where you learn how the counts made and kept ice without refrigerators, and can taste some.

In all, the museum runs more than thirty educational programmes, including the well-known „Cheese Route”.

Ilzenbergas Manor

Ilzenbergo k., Juodupė eldership · about 35 km · On the map

The manor was founded in 1515 by the Livonian knight Berndt von Kersenbrock. Rising on a hill between Ilgis and Apvalusis lakes, it took the German name Ilsen berg, meaning Ilzė’s Hill.

What sets Ilzenbergas apart is that it isn’t a museum. It’s a working farm, the largest biodynamic farm in the Baltic states. Fields are fertilised only with organic manure, animals are fed with feed grown on the farm itself. Sourdough bread is baked in a wood-fired oven, cheeses are smoked in an old stone smokehouse. All of it can be bought in the estate shop.

Tours are divided by interest: the palace, the estate grounds, the animals, or winemaking. Children enjoy the animal tour most, adults the wine and food tastings.

In summer you can cruise Ilgis Lake on an electric catamaran and walk to Love Island in the middle of the lake. The grounds also have a campsite and a sports field.

Salos Manor

Kaštonų g. 13, Salos, Kamajai eldership · On the map

Salos manor stands on an island in Dviragis Lake, the largest inhabited lake island in Lithuania. It’s said that from a bird’s-eye view the island’s outline resembles the map of Lithuania.

The history is long and full of names: in the 16th century Salos belonged to the Radvilas, then was bought by the Italian Morikonis family, who came to Lithuania with Bona Sforza. They built the classicist palace with its portico of six Doric columns. In the Tyzenhauzas era, Salos was famous for the most lavish feasts in all of Lithuania.

The park is one of the oldest in Lithuania. In the Radvila era it was a forest park where trees were never felled, and some of the lindens and maples now count two hundred years. Legend says that in those days bears walked the park instead of guard dogs. Today the company is more modest: horses, ponies, alpacas and ostriches.

The manor has craft workshops, a restaurant and educational sessions, including chocolate painting. The Dviragis beach is set up by the lake, and you can float on a raft or take a ride in an authentic carriage.

Onuškis Manor

Onuškio k., Juodupė eldership · On the map

The fourth manor is entirely different from the previous three. Onuškis manor’s palace is gone, only ruins remain, and that’s exactly why it belongs on this list.

The late classicist palace was built in the mid-19th century by Teofilis Komaras. Its facade boasted eleven columns facing the park, and the building was considered a classicist masterpiece of its time. The palace burned down during the First World War. The picturesque ruins survived the Second World War too and still stand today.

Today only the roofless walls remain, surrounded by an abandoned 15-hectare park with European larches, rare tree species and silted-up ponds. The place is unmaintained and not adapted for tourism, so this is not a tour but a walk among the remnants of the past.

Onuškis draws those who love romantic ruins and quiet. For photographers it’s one of the most striking spots in the district, especially in golden-hour light.