The Mansion of Duke Oginskis Manor

The Mansion of Duke Oginskis Manor The Plungė Manor, along with the town of the same name and the surrounding farmsteads, which are in the Kaunas province, were acquired from Platonas Aleksandrovičius Zubovas, a state advisor, on February 21st, 1873, by Duke Mykolas Irenejevičius Oginskis. The Manor Mansion was in such poor condition that the new owner never even thought of living there. That is why he started constructing a new building next to the recently purchased one that same year. Karl Lorenz, a German architect, designed a mansion in the style of Neo-Renaissance. Estimates of the manor’s finishing works during its construction were found in the Central State Archive of Lithuania. Based on them, one can determine that roughly 50,000 silver roubles were spent on the construction of the manor. The Oginskis Manor looked luxurious. The inside was decorated by craftsmen of the Kazimieras Someras Stiukas Workshop in Warsaw. Duke M. Oginskis’ Mansion had over 100 portraits of the Oginskis family members, which were painted by famous artists, as well as marble busts and other valuable art collections. The mansion also housed collections of valuable and rare publications, stored in the library, archaeological findings, guns, and numismatic paraphernalia. In 1902, when Duke Mykolas Oginskis died, the Plungė Manor was taken care of his wife, Marija Skuževska Oginskienė. When World War I started, the manor was seized by the Germans, while the Duchess left for Poland in 1915. The servants of the manor were left in charge for several years. During the years of Lithuania’s independence, an order was issued, which required all manor owners to return to their manors within six months, or their land and property will be nationalised. M. Oginskienė never returned to Plungė and her manor was handed over to the Plungė municipality. In 1919, the Saulė (Eng. Sun) Four-Form Middle School was established in the mansion, which became a gymnasium in 1925. In 1920, The School of Agriculture was established in the manor and in 1934, both schools were moved elsewhere because an artillery regiment was moved into the building and its rooms were transformed into residential flats for soldiers. During World War II, the building was lit on fire and stood derelict until 1956. In 1953, the Ministry of Agriculture decided to move the Rietavas Technical School of Agriculture into the structure. It was thus decided to rebuild the mansion. The Technical School of Construction was established after the restoration of the mansion. It was open and in operation from 1966 until 1990. In 1994, the mansion became the Samogitian Art Museum.

Sources: Žemaičių dailės muziejus / comprised by D. Mukienė, V. Turskytė, and S. Beržonskaitė. – Vilnius, 1997. – p. 8.
Šimtmečių takais / E. Ravickienė. – Plungė, 1997. – p. 94. Mūsų Lietuva / compiled by B. Kviklys. – 2nd (photo) edition. – Vilnius: Mintis, 1992. – T. 4, p. 73.