In 1610, Hetman Jan Karol Chodkiewicz and his wife Zofia née Mielecka founded a church and a Bernardine monastery and school in Kretynga. After the death of their descendants, Kretynga passed successively to the Sapieha family (including Paweł Jan and Kazimierz Jan), and then, through marriages, to the Massalski and Potocki families. In 1806, the estate passed into the hands of the Russian aristocrat Platon Zubov, and around 1860 it was purchased by Józef Tyszkiewicz of the Leliwa coat of arms.

It was the Tyszkiewicz family - a prominent Polish aristocratic family - who gave Kretinga its present character. Jozef built a modern residence with an orangery, a landscape park and a hydroelectric power station (the first in Lithuania). The palace and park were a symbol of Polish landed gentry culture - with furniture from Paris, tapestries, portraits of the family and an art collection. His son, Aleksander hr Tyszkiewicz, was active in Polish social and political institutions, and was a member of the Russian Council of State and founder of the Polish grammar school in Telšiai.

After World War II, the palace complex was nationalised and destroyed by socialist reconstruction. In 1992, the restored palace housed the Kretyng Museum, which documents the history of the site and the Polish cultural heritage in Samogitia. Elements of the Tiškevičius palace and park layout have been preserved to this day, and the orangery houses the "Graf's Belt" café ("U hrabiego"). The preserved oak trees and ponds recall the glory days of the Polish owners.

For more information, visit www.dworypogranicza.pl.

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