The Kretinga Manor Park Fountains (I)

From 1875 until 1880, the owner of the Kretinga Manor, Count Juozapas Tiškevičius, took initiative and organised the construction of 5 park fountains. The park was divided by arch-shaped linden tree alleyways into four rectangles, in the middle of which stood a fountain with a statue on it. The central fountain was located in the middle of the flower garden. Footpaths connected the central area and the other four fountains, which were situated on the borders of the park. The sixth fountain could be found in front of the mansion and the seventh one was in the Winter Garden.

The technical drawings of the fountain water supply system and other engineering data, compiled by Jonas Šostakas, the land surveyor of the manor, still remain to this day. It is believed that he may also be the man behind the creation of the fountains.

In 1925, during the land reform, a part of the land that belonged to the manor was redistributed among the newly established farmers, while the rest of the land was nationalised. Unfortunately, the fountains became derelict as a result.

In 1992, a museum was established in the mansion of the Kretinga Manor, which eventually undertook to implement the project to restore the fountain in 2004. Starting in 2004 and continuing until 2006, Julius Kanarskas, the head of the museum’s history department, and Donatas Butkus, the head of the museum’s archaeology department, conducted a study of the locations of the first and second fountains in the south-western part of the park.

The study lead to believe that the first fountain did not have a water pump because the pipe leading to the fountain was built on a slope, enabling the water to flow freely from the pond. A footpath was built around the fountain. It lead westward down the hill. An antique sculpture of a woman stood in the middle of the fountain. An umbrella-shaped spurt of water came out of the statue’s palm. The statue was 1.62 metres in height.

Four other fountains were built around the statue. It is believed that ca. 1910-1912, during the reconstruction of the manor, which was badly damaged during the great fire, count Aleksandras Tiškevičius decided to demolish the statue and to plant a flower garden in its place.

The reconstruction of the first fountain was finished in 2009. The Kretinga Museum hopes to fully rebuild the bronze statue of the woman that once was an inherent part of the fountain.

Source: Kretingos enciklopedija