Aristavėlė manor

Aristavėlė Manor was first mentioned in Vartberge Chronicle written by the crusaders in 1371 as the manor of a nobleman Algimantas. It was a regional administrative centre of Upytė land. In 16th-17th centuries, the manor was owned by Šiukšta family, that later sold it to Zabiela family. The manor house was built around 1700, and it is believed it was build by its then manager MykolasZabiela. At the end of the 19th century, the manor was inherited by the Medekša family, who managed it until World War II. The last owner, Stephan Medekša, moved to the West and died in London.

A one-storey building of Aristavėlė Manor House is covered with a huge stepped roof, more than twice the height of the walls. The house had twelve spacious rooms arranged in two rows. The most exquisite was the interior of the dining room. The walls covered with canvas were decorated with polychrome paintings of empire style architectural motifs, and the décor was dominated by military themes.The story goes that the frescos were created by the local painter P. Smuglevičius, in 1812 while waiting for Napoleon to visit the manor... Who never showed up. However, high-ranking Napoleon troops stayed in the manor, and during the uprising of 1863, seven rebels once hid in a large chimney from Russian soldiers who persecuted them.

In 1940, Aristavėlė Manor was confiscated. In the post-war period, the manor housed a collective farm and apartments.In 1980, the former “Sniečkus” collective farm gave the manor house to the Lithuanian Open-Air Museum. The building was then neglected, with pigs even kept at one end of the palace.

In 1987, the palace was dismantled, transported from Kėdainiai district to the museum, stored there and in 2010 rebuilt in the territory of the Lithuanian Open-Air Museum in Rumšiškės. In 2014-2016, Aristavėlė Manor was renovated and opened to visitors.