- Type
- Palace / château
- Style
- Renaissance
- Coordinates
- 55.0967°, 23.1306°
History
In the Middle Ages a Teutonic Order stronghold, built according to the sources around 1337, stood on the hill above the Neman. Late in the 16th century King Sigismund Augustus granted the royal estate of Raudonė to a Prussian merchant of the Kryszpin-Kirschenstein family, who built a Renaissance residence with a tall cylindrical tower. In the 18th century the estate belonged to the Olędzki family, and in 1810 it was bought by Prince Platon Zubov. His heirs – above all his granddaughter Sophia and her husband José Carlos de Faria e Castro – rebuilt the castle in Neo-Gothic style in the 1870s. The building was damaged in both world wars, and after 1945 it housed a school.
What to see
The red mass of the castle with its battlements and 33-metre tower can be seen from afar; the tower can be climbed for a view over the Neman valley. Part of the interior is used for exhibitions and cultural events. The castle is surrounded by a large landscape park with rare trees, including silver fir, Swiss pine and a many-trunked lime once entered for the European Tree of the Year.
Wikipedia article Official website Wikidata Q2970356
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