Markučiai Park

The Markučiai area is famous for its beautiful landscape, and its history goes back as far as the 14th century. Although the famous poet Alexander Pushkin never visited Lithuania, his younger son Grigory Pushkin married Varvara Melnikova-Moshkova, the daughter of Aleksey Melnikov, in 1883. Her father had given her the Markučiai manor as a dowry in 1875. Although Grigory and Varvara Pushkin married in Vilnius, they moved to Markučiai only in 1899. The manor park was designed by the engineer Aleksey Melnikov (an engineer, general and railway construction specialist who came to Vilnius to build the St Petersburg–Vilnius railway). In 1896 the English-style park (probably the fashion of the time) covered 15 hectares and was fenced. It had a pitch for cricket, a popular 19th-century game, 4 ponds and an orangery where palms, ficuses, oleanders, roses and cacti were grown, while proudly strutting peacocks added even more colour. About 1,000 trees and shrubs were planted, and there was a large orchard. Today the park next to the Markučiai Manor (a branch of the Vilnius Museum) covers 8 hectares. Native tree species grow here – small-leaved linden, Norway maple, ash, oak, wych elm, silver birch and others, some more than 1 m in diameter – as well as 13 species of introduced trees: box elder, green ash, large-leaved linden, Siebold's crabapple and more. At first glance, maples seem to dominate. The park has a distinctive relief: wooded hills give it character, and two ponds bring it to life. You can view the ponds from different sides, from above and below, walking the paths and going up or down the stairs. There is a fairly narrow passage between the two ponds. It is said that they never dried up, even on the hottest summer days, because they were constantly fed by local springs whose water, after flowing through the ponds, ran down a deep ravine into the Vilnia. Varvara and Grigory Pushkin are buried in the family cemetery in the park. Near St Barbara's Chapel there is a pet cemetery with monuments to Mrs Varvara Pushkina's dogs. In 1958 Markučiai Park was declared a state protected area, in 1986 it was listed as a natural monument of local significance, and in 2007 it was entered in the Register of Cultural Property.