Verkiai Manor and Park

At the end of the 14th century Jogaila founded the Diocese of Vilnius and granted Verkiai to its bishops. The first 16th-century buildings of the bishops' manor were wooden, with cellars and brick foundations. The main buildings of the Verkiai manor estate are in the classicist style, while the farm buildings reflect folk architecture. Some elements of this valuable ensemble have disappeared completely – where the grandest central palace stood, only cellars with vaulted ceilings remain; others were altered or rebuilt. The central palace was demolished around 1842. Today the Verkiai manor estate – the palace ensemble – is made up of many surviving buildings: the western and eastern outbuildings, a pavilion, the coach house (stables), an ice house, a gatekeeper's lodge, two orangeries, two water mills, a villa, a barn, a cowshed, the cellars of the former palace, the old post office, houses for servants, the stableman, the steward, the miller and carpenters, an administrative building, a boiler house, a water tower, a fountain, lamp posts, the remains of a gazebo and a section of fence with a gate. The Verkiai manor park is one of the most beautiful landscape parks in Lithuania. It covers 36 ha. In the 16th–18th centuries a park laid out in squares lay in the Neris valley, in the lower part of the estate. In the 18th century two parks were created: the upper park and the great park. In the mid-19th century both were turned into landscape parks and partly replanned, and several new winding paths were laid. The upper park lies on a plateau bounded by the valleys of the Neris and the Verkė stream and on the adjoining slopes, while the lower (great) park lies in the Neris valley. Although the upper park is not as fine as it once was, it has a wealth of trees and shrubs. Most are native species: pines, limes and maples, as well as oaks, white elms and wych elms, with spruces and ashes on the valley slopes. Trees and shrubs of 31 native species grow in the park. Among the non-native ones (43 species and forms), the dwarf, densely branched Norway spruces are worth mentioning: they have a conical crown and branches that reach right down to the ground. Next to the palace grow handsome Polish larches and lower, slimmer Siberian larches. It is the only park in Lithuania famous for its great variety of lime species and forms. Very rare American mountain limes, eastern white pines and silver blue spruces grow here. There are plenty of large-leaved limes and some butternut trees. The system of ponds in the Verkiai palace park is distinctive and interesting. The estate's ponds, linked to one another, connect the upper and lower parts of the park. Three groups of ponds survive – on the Verkė, Turniškė and Riešė streams. You can still make out the old shapes of some banks, the beds of former ponds and dried-up canals. In places the ponds are overgrown and boggy, and some of their banks have been planted with pine and spruce.