Aukštoji Freda manor

According to historians, the name Freda comes from a German word for a free land of the city. In 1500, the Grand Duke of Lithuania Alexander Jagiellon gave the area called Freda to Heinrich Slacker, the clerk of the Treasury of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, who established a small manor there. In 1508, Freda Manor became the property of Kaunas city.

During the period of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Aukštoji Freda belonged to the noble family of Pac. In 1673, the chancellor of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania Krzysztof Zygmunt Pac awarded the title of a nobleman to the Italian architect Lodovico Fredo for the construction of Pažaislis Monastery and a land on the left bank of the Nemunas.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a Samogitian nobleman Józef Godlewski bought the lands of Freda, established a country residence here and started a park. Aukštoji Freda Manor ensemble from the period of Classicism and Historicism preserved a clear compositional structure and a landscape park with pond systems to this day.

The main façade of the building of the central manor house faces south and the first floor of the portico has a balcony for relaxation. From the balcony, the host and his guests could admire the spectacular park with ponds and various plants. In front of the palace there are ponds in a shape of letters G and J. It is an interesting and probably the only such case in Lithuania, where the initials of the founder are immortalised.

In the 1880s, a part of Freda Manor was expropriated for the needs of Kaunas fortress, in 1882, the construction of a fort began here. During World War I, some buildings were damaged or completely destroyed. On the 15 February 1923, the Botanical Garden of the University of Lithuania (Vytautas Magnus University since 1930) was established in the southern and western part of the manor.