HISTORY
Under the Convent’s Tutelage (1287 – 1510)
The 1287 written confirmation on the convent’s premises by Erik VI Menved also mentions Palmse. By about 1300, Palmse had become the convent’s sustenance manor. In 1510, Abbess Elisabet Brincke exchanged Palmse manor for Bertram Junge’s Nabala manor. During this period, the manor mainly grew grain –rye and barley. Two watermills – Oruveski and Joaveski – have also been mentioned.
The Family Metztacken (1522 – 1677)
Starting from 1522, Palmse manor belonged to the family Metztacken. During the Livonian War, a major part of the manor’s buildings were destroyed, but their renovation started after the Treaty of Altmark in 1629. According to the greta ownership revision conducted by the Swedish authorities in 1586, the manor covered 21 ploughlands. Fishing sites on the sea and internal bodies of water both were relevant. In 1648, Arend Metztacken, Lord of the Manor of Palmse, went to court with the lessee of the Sagadi manor over the lake Võsu Üllikjärv, for the latter wished to gain sole control over the lake. The marine fishing site of Palmse manor was on Võsu beach.
The Family von der Pahlen (1677 – 1923)
Gustav Christian von der Pahlen started building the manor ensemble; however, the construction was halted by the Great Famine of Estonia (1695 – 1697) and by the Great Northern War. In 1710, Palmse was struck by a plague epidemic, which killed 229 people, and the manor was left in a rather wretched state.
Not long after the Great Northern War, however, construction was continued, and by mid-18th century, Palmse had become a true baroque ensemble of nearly twenty buildings. In the end of the century, when distilling vodka became one of the major sources of income for the lords of the manor, a new distillery as well as a bullock stable (for the distilling residue was valuable fodder) were built. As the distilling industry grew, so did the fields and the labour impost. The vodka was sold to Tallinn and marketed in local taverns – Viitna, Rahkama and Kõrve, and Võsu. In the end of the 19th century, raw spirits were sold to PLC Rosen&Co.
Palmse manor’s brick kiln in Võsu was built at least by 1789, but the bricks were mostly to satisfy the manor’s own needs. Starting from 1868, a modern brick kiln with Hoffmann ovens and horse-driven brick press was used. In addition to bricks, roof tiles were made as well.
By the end of the 19th century, Palmse was one of the largest manors in terms of area. The land amassed to over 10,000 ha – most of it forests and bogs. The manor had 384 ha of arable land and 549 ha of hayfields, and there were about 900 peasants. The majority of income came from renting out cattle manors and farms, selling firewood and planks, the brick industry, and selling raw spirits. In addition to large concerns, the manor also had for its own use a dairy, weavers’ workshop, a limestone quarry, and lime and tar kilns.
The Manor from Its Nationalization Until Today
In 1923, the manor’s land was divided into small holdings and the manor’s heart was given to the Defence League’s use. During this period the wing built in the 1830s was destroyed. After the land reform, the brick kiln in Võsu and Oruveski Sawmill remained with the Phalens, who, in turn, rented them out. The brick kiln was in use until 1933. After World War II, the manor was used as a summer camp location for pioneers. Lahemaa National Park was founded in 1971, and soon after manor renovations started as well. Palmse was the first manor in Estonia that was restored along with all the buildings in the heart of the manor, which in turn, gave a good overview of a characteristic Estonian manor through centuries. The restoration, carried out in 1975 – 1985, revealed murals, which were restored as well. The refurbished was opened to the public in 1986.
CURRENT SITUATION
Since 2002, Palmse manor ensembly belongs to the Foundation Museums of Virumaa.
Surrounding buildings
MANOR HOUSE
Construction time: 1785
The grand baroque manor house gives a good overview of the 19th century interior and the lifestyle of the lords of the manor.
The manor unique interior is characteristic of the 18th and 19th century manor, and it gives a good overview of the local nobles’ lifestyle. The ground floor of the earlier two story manor houses usually had higher ceilings and it was also more grandiose, for it contained parlours and reception rooms. Bedrooms were on the first floor, and the kitchen and other household rooms were in the basement. The present furniture did not belong to the Pahlens (with the exception of a chair in the general’s room on the second floor), but has been bought as sets or single items from different places in Estonia. The tiled stoves on the ground and first floor, however, are old (from the beginning of 19th century and from the end of the 18th century respectively).
The manor house has become what it is today through several stages. The construction started in 1697. It burned down and was built up again in the end of the 1720s, and then architect J.C.Mohr was commissioned to redesign it in between 1782 and 1785. One of the important features added during the rebuilding are the tiled ovens on the upper floor. Three of them are quite simple – an embossing of the goddess of fortune Tychet in the centre and half columns on the sides. The fourth, however, is a masterpiece: its general form has rococo grace, and its rose petal and leaf decorations are graceful as well. The windows and frames of the house were changed in the 19th century – probably at the same time when the wing seen on a drawing from 1840 was built. The wing was, however, demolished in the 1930s. South-eastern and north-western facades of the house were characterised by a dansker-like toilet that was usable on both floors. The classicistic front door of the manor house is from the 19th century.
When Lahemaa National Park started renovating the building in the end of the 1970s, they had to overcome several problems. The work was made harder for the building having stood empty for a while. It was also not easy to distinguish in between different periods.
ORANGERY
Constrction time: 1870
One of the most beautiful buildings in the manor ensemble is the orangery – conservatory.
Glass-covered hotbeds for growing melons, watermelons, and fresh lettuce were used in Palmse already at the end of the 18th century. The present greenhouses, or more elegantly orangeries, were built around Alexander von der Pahlen’s time in the 1870s.
Considering that the original orangery was built so long ago, we can grow a great variety of plants and still remain faithful to the manor’s heyday period. Never before had growing exotic plants been as popular as in the 19th century. There were two main reasons for this phenomenon – a large selection of available plants (by the beginning of the 19th century, more than 5,000 new species had been brought to Europe from oversees colonies) and reducing growing expenses. Heating systems had developed quite a lot, and glass prices plummeted as well – technology for producing glass panes was invented.
And when new engineering and technical skills allowed constructing cast metal greenhouse frames, the result was a boom of building greenhouses and conservatories. It culminated with the building of the Crystal Palace for the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London.
The so-called Wardian case, although already in use for ten years, was also displayed on the exhibition. It was a method, discovered by Nathaniel Ward, for growing plants in a closed environment, and it allowed plants to be transported to Europe from faraway lands without much loss. This invention also contributed to the fast distribution of exotic plants in Europe.
Ever newer and fancier conservatories were built for previously unseen plants, which gave rise to a new gardening style called gardenesque, which consisted in the gardeners’ attempt to outmatch each other with rarities. One of the most important features of the period’s garden design fashion was patterned flowerbeds, which were mostly built on exotic plants wintered in greenhouses or conservatories. For the summer, gardeners brought outdoors as many plants as possible, starting from palm trees and agaves placed in the centre of flowerbeds to species from the genus Echeveria and other succulents that were used for forming patterns.
This trend also brought growing houseplants on a large scale into Estonia. The first conservatories and greenhouses were built near manors already in the first decade of the 19th century, and the first greenhouses in the University of Tartu Botanical Gardens were built in the same period. The truly grandiose conservatories, however, started to be built in the second half of the 19th century. By the end of the century, the diversity of exotic plants grown in Estonia was surprisingly great.
In Estonia, palm trees of different kinds were considered the most valuable houseplants, but Cordyline species, Aspidistra species, laurel trees, myrtle bushes, and also fuchsias and pelargoniums were popular as well. The last two found their way to the commoners’ windowsills quite fast.
In spite of the rather large selection of exotic plants, the 19th century conservatories were mainly recreational or entertainment places for the family, greenhouses for growing exotic fruits, and/or wintering greenhouses for plants that were planted outside for the summer. Pot plants were also often grown in conservatories in order to use them to decorate the manor house.
Decorative plants in conservatories were, therefore, mainly grown in pots and on shelves. Plants were planted directly into the ground either only when the conservatory was very large, or in case of a few select plants or fruit cultivars like grapes.
By the beginning of the 1970s, only the western portion and stone walls of the conservatory were still extant. The orangery was rebuilt according to old photos and it was fully renovated in 2014/2015.
STOREHOUSE
Construction time: 1820
The renovated storehouse is an ideal place for putting up various exhibitions.
Customarily, manors usually have more than one storehouse: separate buildings for grains, vodka, meat, and other goods. Following suit, in 1722, Palmse had five storehouses, the largest of which had two stories and a room for coaches in the middle.
The first storehouse in Palmse manor was built on the south-eastern side of the front courtyard in 1730 when Arend Diedrich von der Pahlen was the lord of the manor. However, its current location does quite correspond to the present one, but was outside the fence surrounding the courtyard and was made of wood. The current stone building was built by Carl Magnus von der Pahlen in the beginning of the 1820s. It was meant for storing grains and vodka – the grain sacks, however, were lifted in through the front arcade, while the vodka barrels were rolled in through the back doors.
When Lahemaa National Park gained ownership of the storehouse in 1973, only its south-western side was still standing, the rest of the building was in ruins. The storehouse was rebuilt by the end of the 1970s, and it is now used as a venue for various exhibitions during the summer months.
OX STABLE
Construction time: 1914
The fieldstone building houses the exhibition ‘Estonian Spirits’, which gives an overview of spirits production from the 15th century onwards.
The leftovers from vodka production were suitable animal fodder, and therefore, stables were usual companions of distilleries. It was calculated that if the distillery produced at least one barrel of vodka a day, then there was enough wash to fatten fifty oxen.
The first information on an ox stable at Palmse is from the year 1776. The present stable was built in 1914.
SMITHY
Construction time: 1802
Every perfect manor ensemble has to have a smithy.
As smithies were a fire hazard, they were usually built quite far away from other buildings, usually on a field’s or a park’s border. The Palmse smithy was reconstructed on the banks of a pond and it is open to anyone wishing to see how smiths work, or even to try forging themselves.
The building was constructed in the beginning of the 19th century during the time of Carl Magnus von der Pahlen. Having stood derelict for a long time, Lahemaa National Park revamped it in 1985.
FARM LABOURERS’ HOUSE
Construction time: 1831
One end of the building is used for the exhibition on the farm labourers’ everyday life and the tools they used; the other end of the building is converted into a tavern.
In Estonia, the lords of the manor started using paid labourers in the second quarter of the 19th century. A farm labourer was a person who had family and performed farm-related tasks in the manor (if the labourers were paid in commodities, then they were farm servants). Farm labourers lived in the farm labourers’ house situated near the manor’s courtyard.
Farm labourers’ houses were usually built by ones or clumped together near the manor’s courtyard or further away by the manor’s fields. The houses were normally residential buildings with 4 – 8 (seldom 12) apartments.
According to some sources, the farm labourers’ house was built in mid-18th century (H. Sirel, historical statement). Later research results seem to suggest that the statement was about an earlier building, which was probably made of wood and was probably destroyed in the beginning of the 19th century. It may be assumed that the present farm labourers’ house was built in between 1796 and 1799. In the turn of the century, the old and the new labourers’ house both were still extant. The master builder of the new labourers’ house was Jera Joosep and, at times, also Joaveski Samuel. The ovens were built by the Russian master stove setter Feodor Gavrilov.
The labourers’ house of Palmse manor is a tavern type building – there is a spacious stable (threshing room) on both ends for wagons and other transportation items and a mantel chimney at the centre – with a trussed kitchen and smaller rooms.
The building was renovated in 2006. Since then, a part of the building houses an exhibition on farm labourers’ everyday life and activities. Starting from 2008, the other end of the building has been used as a tavern, which offers particularly good ancestral dishes.
BATHHOUSE
Construction time: 1997
The romantic bathhouse on the bank of a mirror-like pond is used as a restaurant during the summer season.
The Palmse sauna was the most grandiose of all the known saunas in Estonian manors. The building had a hipped roof and was surrounded by an open covered balcony on all four, or at least three, sides. The central axis was emphasized by the pediment on the door and the tympanum rising from the balcony’s twin columns on the same line with the eaves.
The bathhouse was built as a sauna in the first half of the 19th century. The 18th century (1753) sauna had been standing in the same location, but one end against the pond. It was probably destroyed in a fire that took place near the end of the 19th century.
The present bathhouse that partly leans over water was built in the second quarter of the 19th century by Carl Magnus von der Pahlen as a place for summertime social gatherings.
In the beginning of the 1970s, only pieces of the building’s foundation and bank reinforcement were still extant.
The bathhouse was restored in 1997-1998 on the basis of old photographs and the remains of the foundation.
MALT BARN
Construction time: 1804
The malt barn is used as a training center, and it has various cosy conference rooms that have historical ambience, but are, nonetheless, equipped with every modern convenience.
The malt barn was the building where barley and rye were germinated to get malt, which was needed for making, beer, mead, and vodka.
In the 19th century, the manor’s carpentry workshop was in the malt barn as well. In addition, the storeman’s family and herdsmen’s families also had their living quarters in the malt barn.
In 1823, the village school led by Zacharias Kranich was given two rooms in the malt barn. The school was moved to Võhma village two decades later.
The malt barn was renovated in 2009 and has since been used as a training centre, which is equipped with modern technology.
The malt barn stood in the same location already in 1753, but it was a wooden building with a thatched roof. The present barn was built in 1804–1805, and was in a satisfactory condition until the beginning of the 1970s. The malt barn was renovate din 2009.
CAVALIERS’ HOUSE
Construction time: 1822
A historic place for the younger generation to relax. Today, there is a children's playhouse in the building, which is a 1.80 m high exact copy of the current manor house of Palmse manor. The sides of the house are openable and in the rooms every child can play real manor life using their imagination.
The cavaliers’ house is small wooden building resembling an ancient prostyle temple with four lean Tuscan columns supporting the pediment and similar pilasters on the sides. During summer period, the house was used for gatherings and housing guests. This is also how the building got its name. Cavaliers’ houses usually neighboured manor houses. In 1840, the house was called a barn.
The cavaliers’ house was built in 1822 as a typical classicistic small wooden house. It was renovated by the Lahemaa National Park in mid-1980s and was used as a souvenir shop.
STEWARD’S HOUSE
Construction time: 1820
On the eastern side of the manor’s center lies the steward’s house, or the ‘New Manor’, which is presently used as a guesthouse.
In the beginning of the 20th century, it was occupied by the storeman, the steward, and the scribe, and at one point, also the smith and the dairyman. The two-story building was originally meant for housing guests. Alexis von der Pahlen’s inventory list of 1889 reveals that the ground floor had thirteen and the first floor had eleven beds. In addition to guest rooms, there were also a few housekeeping rooms – the ironing room, the housekeeper’s room, and a kitchen.
The earlier plans of Palmse manor (18th century) show two wooden buildings – the cabinet maker’s building and the gardener’s building – in the place of the steward’s house. The present stone building was finished in about 1820, when the manor was ruled by Carl Magnus von der Pahlen. The steward’s house retains stylish building details from the 18th and the 19th century (wrought iron, doors, window shutters, etc.). During the first years of the Lahemaa National Park, the building was in a good shape.
The building was renovated and has retained its former appearance. The building housed Palmse Elementary School from 1986 until 2003. From 2008 onward, the building has been used as a guesthouse.
DISTILLERY
Construction time: 1860
The bulky building with its 33-meter chimney is now Park Hotel Palmse.
Distilling vodka is not as old a practice in Estonian manors as is often thought to be. It became a central source of income only in the second half of the 18th century, especially after 1766, when the Russian market was opened to Estonian and Livonian liquor. Distilling vodka not only gave the manors a low-cost way to realize their grain harvest, but the leftover wash was also cheap fodder for fattening a great number of livestock whose manure, in turn, helped to make field more fertile. It is hard to imagine another production area that could have given the lords of the manor an opportunity to get more profit than from distilling vodka that was one of the main pillars on which the manor’s economy rested. In the end of the 18th century, Estonian manors distilled on average 1.4 to 1.6 million buckets of spirits (as 50% alc/vol vodka) per year. By the end of the 19the century, the number had grown to 3 million buckets a year, and by the eve of WWI, it was more than 4 million buckets a year.
The Palmse distillery has been in more or less the same location since 1736. The first building was made of wood, but the first stone distillery was raised already in 1774. The present bulky building with its 33-meter chimney was built in the 1860s and 1870s, and was not powered by a water wheel, but by steam. In 1890, Kotov, the governorate engineer, completed drawings for supplement the distillery with a new boiler room, but his project was never realised. When Lahemaa National Park became the owner of Palmse manor in 1973, the distillery was already mostly in ruins. It was renovated by 1995 and is now a hotel.
STABLE - COACH HOUSE
Construction time: 1820
The stable - coach house now houses the Visitor Information Centre for Lahemaa National Park.
Livestock barns had been built on the same spot in Palmse already in mid-18th century. In the second half of the century, they were remodelled and expanded repeatedly, which gave rise to the traditional ‘fortress type’ group of barns, i.e. the barns encircled the central courtyard.
Among the manors’ most important outbuildings were horse stables and coach houses – every manor had them. As the stable - coach house lies parallel to the storehouse and forms an important part in the general housing design, it has been given a similar arcaded façade as the storehouse.
The present stable - coach house was built in several stages: the south-eastern stone walls of the cattle yard built in the same spot in 1779–1781 were partly incorporated into the new building; the stable - coach house got its present shape during the reconstruction done by Carl Magnus von der Pahlen in the beginning of the 1820s. In the manor’s heyday, the stable had 36 roadsters.
By the beginning of the 1970s, the stable and barn complex was completely destroyed. The building was restored by Lahemaa National Park in 1977.
BREST PAVILION
Construction time: 1840
The cozy pavilion on the high bank of the Oruveski Lake bears the name of Brest. The view from the pavilion is simply breathtaking.
In the second half of the 19th century, the pavilion is also simply called ‘BELVEDERE’ (‘beautiful view’ in Italian). This term is used for any separate architectonically designed vista point in park architecture or certain castle portions that enable one to admire beautiful landscapes. These structures became especially popular in English landscape gardens.
Brest was a classicistic open viewing pavilion encircled by a baluster and supporting on columns. It was built in the second half of the 19th century, when the manor was ruled by Alexander von der Pahlen, and it got its name from the Brest Fortress located on the tip of Bretagne (Brittany). The pavilion was rebuilt in its original form in 1974.
MANOR PARK
Construction time: 1738
Plamse manor’s park is one of the most outstanding parks in Estonia.
The regulated park near the manor house has been restored. Parterres on the two sides of the manor house were rebuilt in 2009. A high fence with its stone foundation and stone pillars surrounds the manor’s front yard; the gates are decorated with granite obelisks (1839). The lawn in front of the manor house is bordered with trees and encircled by a roundabout; the back of the manor house overlooks a park with a system of ponds, which becomes a natural forest park further away. The areas between buildings are linked with low limestone walls with arched gates. There are classicistic pavilions, summer cottages, a pier, and a row of pruned lime trees by the limestone-reinforced bank of the pond. There are also small pavilions over springs in the park. The orchards are surrounded by limestone walls; and the greenhouses and the orangery have been renovated. In the forest park, over ten kilometres of paths of the 19th century network of roads are still remaining; the white wooden bridges (Smith’s Bridge (Sepasild), Greta Bridge (Suursild), and Stoneoak Bridge (Kivitamme sild)) have been restored; and the landscape offers beautiful views on the mirror-like surfaces of the ponds. The Brest pavilion (built in ca. 1870–1871) – a classicistic pavilion with a balustrade and columns – stands on the high bank of the Oruveski Lake. As the forest park draws away from the manor house, it increasingly becomes more and more natural forest.
By the open air stage near the pond, there is a memorial stone for the agrarian reform’s 10th anniversary (1933).
There is a group of rapakivi granite boulders – thirteen larger and a number of smaller ones – that were taken under protection already in 1937. According to folk tradition, the Nunnery Stones are devils who turned into stone while waiting for the nuns to come for a rendezvous.
Palmse park was first created as a French formal garden or baroque garden. The work on the outstanding garden in between the previously built ponds and manor house started in 1738. The park had terraces, parterres or even lawns decorated with flower patterns, labyrinths made of pruned hedges, groups of pruned trees and bushes, and trees bordering different elements of the park. The regular orchard was in a separate location. An extensive reshaping of the park took place in in between 1818 and 1840 when the regulated park was changed into a free-form park and a large English style landscape park or deer park was added. The topography of the natural forest – river valleys, the Oruveski Reservoir along with islands – was incorporated into the park. Roads, rapids, cascades, and bridges were constructed, numerous pavilions – some looking like ancient temples, others like wooden huts – were built, and new landscape vistas were cleared. By the road leading to Brest pavilion, there was a grotto opening towards the reservoir. In the second half of the 19th century, the northern sandy area with its gulches was made into forest park. Palmse park was designed by von Pahlens themselves. In the end of the 19th century, M. Weidemann was the manor’s gardener, but he was also helped by three garden boys. For the summer period, six maids from near Lake Peipus were hired to maintain the long meandering gravel paths. The manor’s avenues were planted in the 18th century. The alleys that branch off crosswise lead towards Viitna and Ilumäe, and the ones on the manor house’s central axis lead towards the landscape. The mixed alleys consist of lime trees, oaks, maples, and ashes. In 1840, common limes were planted where the alleys fork. In the second half of the 19th century, a maple-elm alley – the longest (6 km) in Estonia – was built by the Palmse-Ilumäe road, and a maple alley was built from the fork till the chapel yard. In 2009, historical documents were consulted to restore the manorside two-terraced park area, complete with parterres and hedges.
The park has average biodiversity, and has 61 taxa of trees and bushes, out of which 38 are alien (2005). Deciduous trees – lime trees, maples, ashes, oaks, and horse-chestnuts – are prevalent near the buildings. Ancient huge lime trees and oaks over 27 m high grow by the manor house. The common limes growing by the border of the front yard are noteworthy, for they are 18 m high and their maximum circumference is 444 cm. New large-leaved lime trees were planted in the back yard. The forest park is dominated by old pines and firs, but also maples, limes, aspens, ashes, birches, and elms. There are only a few alien species, out of which the Swiss pine and the European larch. Grey alders and common alders grow by waterbodies. Lilacs, ninebarks, false spiraeas, guelder roses, fly honeysuckles, Tartarian honeysuckles, common snowberries, red elderberries, Siberian peashrubs, etc. The alley mainly consists of maples, but ashes and oaks have also been used. Common limes (max circumference of 455 cm) and small-leaved limes are the thickest trees. Of fruit bearing trees, old varieties of apples and pears, but also purple crab apples have been planted
The following protected species can be found in the park: lichens –Nephroma parile, Lobaria pulmonaria, Sclerophora pallida, Arthonia byssacea, and Evernia divaricata;liverworts: Neckera pennata; plants – Diphasiastrum complanatum, Lycopodium clavatum, Dactylorhiza maculata, Pulsatilla pratensis, Dianthus arenarius; elavad bats – Pipistrellus nathusii, Eptesicus nilssonii, Myotis daubentonii, Myotis dasycneme, Myotis brandtii, Myotis nattereri, Nyctalus noctula, Plecotus auritus; kahepaikne amphibians – Rana temporaria; and birds – Accipiter gentilis, Tetrao urogallus, Tetrastes bonasia, Dryocopus martius, Picoides tridactylus, Dendrocopos leucotos, and Dendrocopos minor. The following plants have naturalized in Palmse park: Naturaliseerunud on common butterbur (Petasites hybridus), common daisy (Bellis perennis), and common snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis).
ROTUNDA
Construction time: 1820
Situated by a pond on the border of the French formal garden, the pavilion has a scenic view.
Rotundas or the so-called temples of friendship – small structures with a circular ground plan and eight pillars – were widespread in the 19th century park architecture.
The rotunda has stairs with circular steps descending to the water from the floor level. These steps also function as a pier.
In the end of the 18th century, there was a square wooden pavilion on the same spot.
The old structure was, however, completely destroyed, and the present rotunda was built in the end of the 1970s.
SPRING PAVILION
Construction time: 1840
The spring pavilion is a small structure giving color to the landscape park.
The beautiful pavilion – six wooden pillars and a pyramidal roof resting on a hexagonal concrete block foundation – is situated on a crossroads by a brook.
The spring pavilion was built in the first half of the 19th century and renovated in the fourth quarter of the 20th century.
COFFEEHOUSE
Construction time: 1753
A typical classicistic wooden park house with squared corners.
The so-called coffeehouse from 1840 is a typical small classicistic wooden park house with squared corners that was probably given its current shape in the first half of the 19th century.
The 1753 manor plan already had a small quadrangle building on that spot. However, the building had fallen into ruins over time, and was only rebuilt as it had been in the end of the 1970s.
BREWERY
Construction time: 1820
Inside there is an exhibition that introduces history of brewing and different brewing methods.
Until the end of 19.th century every manor had its own brewery that produced beer for manor and taverns.
