Eleja manor house
Eleja manor house (German: Herrenhaus Elley) is the name of the ruins of a destroyed manor house, manor complex buildings and the surrounding English landscape garden. It is located in Eleja, Latvia.
During its 19th-century heyday the manor house was part of a property that included a well-kept park, 19 buildings (a brewery, stables, a wind mill, brick and lime kilns) ponds and 1500 hectares of farmland and forests.
Christoph Johann Friedrich von Medem
Manor house complex
Manor house ruins
Manor house ruins
Former barn and theatre building
Former majordomo's house, 2015
Arched stone fence
Brewery building
Tea house restoration, 2015
Sphynx
Performers in historic costumes, 2015
From 1583 Eleja lands belonged to Georg von Tiesenhausen from the noble Tiesenhausen family. A wooden manor house was built by the Eleja river. After the death of Johann Friedrich von Tiesenhausen in 1716, the manor was inherited by his sister Amalie von Behr. After the death of Johann Ulrich von Behr (1716-1753), the manor was purchased in by the Count Johann Friedrich von Medem who paid 135 000 florins for it. He built a new Rococo style manor house here. His daughter's Dorothea von Medem's marriage to the Duke of Courland Peter von Biron in 1779 further elevated von Medems’ standing among the local nobles.
After the death of Johann in 1785, Eleja was inherited by his youngest son Christoph Johann von Medem. After many years of service in Kingdom of Prussia and Russian Empire, his attention returned to Eleja. In 1799 he married Maria Louise Elisabeth, daughter of Peter von der Pahlen, a favorite of emperor Paul I of Russia.
After incorporation of Courland into the Russian empire, von Medems retained their properties and from 1806 until 1810 Christoph Johann von Medem built the Eleja manor house. The building was designed by the famous architect Giacomo Quarenghi and after some design changes built by Johann Georg Adam Berlitz in a neoclassical style. Eleja manor style was influential in building Mežotne Palace and Kazdanga palace, both of which survive to our days.
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