In the mid-18th century, the owners of Liepupes Manor, the von Meke family, planned a magnificent Baroque park when they built the grand manor house. Up until the middle of the 18th century, parks in the Latvian territory were designed according to the Italian or French formal garden style. The foreign specialists involved in the garden design could not fully understand the local climatic conditions, which led to nature making its own adjustments, with many exotic plants failing to withstand the cold Latvian winters. This is also the case for Liepupes Manor’s park.
The Liepupes Manor park was created in the 18th and 19th centuries as part of the manor ensemble, and its structure is still discernible today. On the northeastern side of the manor house, there is a symmetrically designed courtyard, with an axially oriented road leading in from the Jelgavkrasti side. The layout of the Liepupes Manor park was intended to be formal.
The structure and outlines of the manor’s park are still clearly visible, despite the passage of time. The von Zenger family, who owned the manor in the 19th century, nearly rebuilt the small park at the end of the century, though they did not deviate from the 18th-century formal design in its creation.
The plantings in the park indicate that most of them were made around the 1890s, though older trees, such as large oaks, can still be found. One of these is the “Love Oak,” located about 460 meters from the manor house, with a circumference exceeding 7 meters.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Liepupes Manor had a large and well-maintained park. The owners put in a great deal of effort to give the park a design in line with the fashion trends of the time. In 1909, the von Zenger family installed a bridge across the large ravine in the park. In the 1930s, it was called the “Love Bridge,” but over time it decayed and was never restored.
During World War II, the manor’s buildings remained undamaged, but the surrounding landscape lost many beautiful trees in the manor park and the chestnut alley.
During the manor period, there were neither orchards nor vegetable gardens in the park area. In 1954, the chief gardener of the Soviet farm, Andrejs Lucāns, established a large apple orchard next to the park, and a horticultural nursery with greenhouses was placed within the park grounds.
With the beginning of changes in the 1990s, the size of Liepupes Manor park was recorded as only 1.7 ha. The park area shrank remarkably quickly over the years: in the 1920s, it was 8.54 ha, in the 1930s – 6 ha, during the Soviet era – 2 ha, and in the restored Latvia, it became just 1.7 ha.
In 1998, Liepupes Manor park was granted the status of a state-protected architectural monument. The park still preserves some historically significant tree plantings, which are dendrological rarities in Latvia – the white elm, walnut, and the black walnut.
Since the restoration of the manor began in 2004, the Liepupes Manor park has undergone tremendous transformations.
The once neglected park has turned into a magnificent, peaceful oasis. The old trees have been well-maintained, and every year the park is enriched with new plantings. A formal French-style garden with roses, boxwoods, and hydrangeas has been created. There is an interesting story behind this garden: the manor’s owner, Egita Lauska, dreamt of the garden, and unable to sleep, she began working on a design, sketching the garden plan on a piece of grid paper. The project was completed without the involvement of professional landscapers or gardeners, solely by the manor staff and owners themselves. This took place in the autumn of 2019, and since the summer of 2020, visitors to the manor have been delighted by this beautiful French-style garden. Continuing the work of the manor’s previous owners, the influence of Italian and French parks and gardens is still visible in the Liepupes Manor park today. Visitors to the manor are also pleased by citrus trees and olive trees.
Throughout the season, the Liepupes Manor park remains in constant bloom – with forest tulips, snowdrops, primroses, forget-me-nots, tulips, lavender, Japanese cherries, magnolias, spireas, lilacs, jasmines, roses, hydrangeas, orange trees, lemon trees, and much more. A romantic gazebo has been installed on the edge of the manor lake, from which one can view water lilies and other aquatic plants.
