Kretinga Manor

The Tyszkiewicz family rebuilt Kretinga manor in the nineteenth century and added the thing that makes it worth a detour: a large glazed winter garden built onto the house in the 1870s, three storeys high, heated and planted with palms, tree ferns, camellias and subtropical species, with a fountain and galleries, one of the earliest and largest structures of its kind in the region. It was restored in the 1980s and again later and is planted and working, so in the middle of a Lithuanian winter you walk from snow into a warm glass hall of greenery. The house holds the Kretinga museum with regional and manor collections, and a park runs behind. A Franciscan monastery and church stand in the town.

History

The manor's modern history is said to begin when the bishop of Vilnius, Ignacy Jakub Massalski, planted fruit trees here in the late 18th century. Count Tyszkiewicz bought the land at auction in 1874, the museum committee was set up in 1935, and the greenhouse was rebuilt in 1987 (Wikipedia, Kretinga Museum).

What's there

• The winter garden - a three-storey glass hall of palms and ferns.
• The manor museum - regional and Tyszkiewicz collections in the house.
• The park - grounds and paths behind the manor.
• The Franciscan church - the monastery complex in the town.

When to go

Year round, and winter is arguably the best time, when the contrast between the glass house and the weather outside is at its sharpest. The museum closes on Mondays.

Before you go

The winter garden is the main attraction and the rest of the museum is modest. Labelling is largely in Lithuanian. The town itself has little else. It works as a stop between Klaipėda and Palanga.

Nearby

Palanga lies northwest; Klaipėda is south.