Čiobiškis Manor House

Čiobiškis Manor

Čiobiškis Manor obtained its current form in 1815-1826, after the manor was acquired by Jonas Krizastemas Pilsudskis in the late 18^th century. The former wooden manor building, as it is believed to be until then, was replaced by a slightly bigger thought moderately sized classicistic structure. Although, as in the case of the local church built by J. K. Pildsudskis nearby, there are speculations that the palace may have been designed by L. Gucevičius, the authorship remains unknown. Čiobiškis Manor represents one of the types of manor houses of that time: it is a one-story building with mezzanine – the shelter turns into a two-storey part at the centre. At the central part including both floors an imitation of the portico, slightly protruding from the general plane of the façade, can be seen, where a rather unusual element is distinguished by architectural historians – rectangles arranged at the corners at the inner semi-circular pilasters. The building is crowned by a relatively low triangular pediment above the high entablature. The eastern façade is almost identical; however, a balcony is also integrated on the second floor from that side of the palace which used to have a picturesque panorama of the river confluence. Architectural elements of the single-storey parts are moderate as well: the bumps matching the width of the modillions arranged under the cornices are replicated in the frieze; corners of the palace are highlighted by rustic stones. The symmetry of the façades typical of the classicistic buildings is broken by asymmetric arrangement of windows on the eastern side as well as the northern extension which distorts the volume of the palace as well; it’s true, it is believed that the latter is much older than the palace itself, and that it used be a part of the old manor ensemble. The interiors of the palace as well as other buildings of the ensemble have changed during the periods when an orphanage and later a special school used to operate here for almost ninety years. And yet, there’s still a lot of old painted decorations hiding under the subsequent layers of plaster and paint in the interiors of the palace. We can see a square facing the front façade – it is a former so-called representative zone, which used to be rectangular. There used to be a flower garden in the part which is closer to the palace, and a part a little further from it used to be formed by the officine and stable buildings on both sides of the palace which remained to this day. The officine remained to this day though significantly changed, but the stable building was restored at the beginning of the 21^st century.

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