Kelmė Manor is a former residential manor in

Kelmė Kelmė (; is a city in northwestern Lithuania, a historical region of Samogitia. It has a population of 8,206 and is the administrative center of the Kelmė district municipality. History Kelmė's name may come from the Lithuanian ''kelmynės'' ...

, Lithuania. Currently it is occupied by Kelmė Regional Museum. Of the nine buildings on the 15.2 hectare estate, three are used for the display of museum artifacts.

History

The Kelmė Estate dates back to the 15th century, when it was owned by the

Grand Duke of Lithuania The monarchy of Lithuania concerned the monarchical head of state of Kingdom of Lithuania, Lithuania, which was established as an Absolute monarchy, absolute and hereditary monarchy. Throughout Lithuania's history there were three Duke, ducal D ...

. It was passed to Jonas Kontautas at the end of the century, then to the Polish Gruzewski family in 1591. They actively supported the

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

, establishing a Protestant parish in Kelmė in 1596, and they built the Protestant church in 1622 and founded the first school in Kelmė. They also established an extensive library and archive of Reformation history, which includes about 5000 rare volumes, as well as numismatic collections including Greek and Roman coins. The manor was built about 1780 and was owned for many years by the Gruzewski family. In 1831, Kelmė Estate was at the centre of an unsuccessful rebellion against

Czarist Russia The Tsardom of Russia or Tsardom of Rus' also externally referenced as the Tsardom of Muscovy, was the centralized Russian state from the assumption of the title of Tsar by Ivan IV in 1547 until the foundation of the Russian Empire by Peter I ...

. Work was done on the manor in 1892 by architect F. Lehmann, and a project to establish a park was prepared in 1898, and in 1892 Bronislavas Gruzewski established a butter manufacturing company Biruta. In 1940 the estate was taken over, and the owners, Gabriele Gruzewska and her daughters Sofia and Adolfina, were expelled and eventually exiled to

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive region, geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a ...

. Baron von Haren occupied the estate during the German occupation, and in 1941 the archive was moved to the Aušros museum in

Šiauliai Šiauliai (; bat-smg, Šiaulē; german: Schaulen, ) is the fourth largest city in Lithuania, with a population of 107,086. From 1994 to 2010 it was the capital of Šiauliai County. Names Šiauliai is referred to by various names in different la ...

, from which it was transferred to the Library of the

Lithuanian Academy of Sciences The Lithuanian Academy of Sciences or LMA ( lt, Lietuvos mokslų akademija) is a state-funded independent organization in Lithuania dedicated for science and research. Its mission is to mobilize prominent scientists and initiate activities that ...

in 1952. After the war the manor was used as a school, the Centre of Soviet Economy of Aviculture. A historic barn on the estate was restored and renovated as part of the museum and opened in January 2010, funded by €289,877 from the Norwegian Financial Mechanism in Lithuania.

Gallery

File:Kelmės dvaras 1938.jpg, Kelmė Manor (1938) File:Kelmes dvaras priekis 2013 IMG 7135.jpg, Kelmė Manor (front) File:Kelmes dvaras svirnas 2013 IMG 7136.jpg, Barn File:Kelmes dvaras vartai 2013 IMG 7139.jpg, Gates

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kelme Manor Manor houses in Lithuania Baroque architecture in Lithuania