Šešuolėliai I, Širvintos District Municipality
Aukštaitija
restored English cottage-style manor, event and accommodation estate
Šešuolėliai I village, Zibalai eldership, Širvintos District
55.07784, 25.06234
1-1.5 hours for the territory and park by prior arrangement
summer, when the park is attractive and Kristupas Festival concerts take place
Šešuolėliai I Manor, Šešuolėliai I Manor Estate
A rare English cottage style
Šešuolėliai Manor stands in Šešuolėliai I village, Zibalai eldership, Širvintos District. It is rare in Lithuania for its English cottage style: a red-brick palace with a free, asymmetrical plan, two-storey risalit, mezzanine, and mansard. This form is unusual in Lithuanian manor architecture, so Šešuolėliai is regarded as one of the country's more ornate residential manors.
Do not confuse it with Šešuolėliai II Manor nearby in Antrieji Šešuolėliai, which is a separate unrestored estate. The number matters in sources: this page is about the well-preserved, restored Šešuolėliai I estate.
Končiai, Variakojis, and Smetona's visits
Until the nineteenth century, Šešuolėliai belonged to the Biržai Radziwiłłs, later to the Jasinskis and Končiai families. The manor estate was founded by the Jasinskis in the mid-nineteenth century, and its present form was given around 1900 by Petras Povilas Končius, director of the Vilnius Land Bank, who rebuilt the palace in English cottage and Art Nouveau forms. VLE cautiously states that the design may have been prepared by Vilnius architect Tadeusz Rostworowski.
The estate economy was modern: it had a distillery and power plant, so both the palace and farm buildings were lit by electricity. In the 1920s-1930s the manor belonged to Lithuanian army colonel Jonas Variakojis; tradition says President Antanas Smetona occasionally visited him and stayed on the palace's second floor. After the Second World War the manor was nationalised and became a Soviet farm centre.
Restoration and manor park
In 1998 the manor was acquired by Raimundas Vincentas Petrauskas, a Lithuanian lawyer from the United States, who restored the palace, farm buildings, and historic park. Near the palace survive an octagonal, two-storey folk-type icehouse, a late nineteenth-century granary, and early twentieth-century historicist farm buildings such as the steward's house, stable, and barns.
The roughly 12 ha English landscape park was formed before 1855 and redesigned in the late nineteenth century. It has three ponds and a stream, with a parterre in front of the palace. Introduced species include sycamore maples, Weymouth pines, blue spruces, and grey walnuts. The park was declared protected in 1958.
How to visit Šešuolėliai Manor
The manor is private and operates as an events and accommodation estate for weddings, conferences, photo sessions, and concerts, including Kristupas Summer Festival events. Public information states that the territory can be seen only by prior registration, and tours inside the palace are not organised; this is not a freely accessible tourist site.
Before travelling, arrange a visit or come for a public event. Check conditions, accommodation, and event options directly with the manor. Šešuolėliai combines well with other Širvintos-area sites and is roughly an hour from Vilnius.
