Count Platon Zubov (1767-1822)

After the fall of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Russian Empress Catherine the Great gave Jurbarkas to Count Platon Zubov. Zubov was the last of Catherine’s favourites and the most powerful man in the Russian Empire during the last years of her reign. It was probably during Zubov’s time that the stone two-storey Neoclassical mansion with single-storey side risalites was built.^[4][5]

In 1796, after the death of Catherine the Great and the ascension of Tsar Paul I, Platon Zubov was relieved of all his posts, stripped of his estates and exiled to Germany.^[6]

General Hilarion Vassiltchikov (1776–1847)

In 1845 Tsar Nicholas I took Jurbarkas from the Zubov family and gave it to General Hilarion Vassiltchikov.^[4][5]

The Vassiltchikov family (Rus: Васильчиков) were a rich, famous  and influential family in Tsarist Russia. They owned vast areas of land across Russia and the Ukraine. Many Vasilchikovs were famous military officers and public figures.

General Hilarion Vassiltchikov normally visited Jurbarkas from St. Petersburg only for the summer. Vassiltchikov encircled the estate with a high red brick wall (fragments and gate posts still survive), and two stone servants’ quarters were built (or rebuilt).^[5] Servants lived in the south building: the more elegantly outfitted north building was designated for the owners and guests. A former liquor storehouse beside this building was renovated into a small Orthodox Church in 1865.^[5] To the west, agricultural and administrative buildings were built, further from the Mituva River.^[5]

General Ilarion Illarionovich Vassiltchikov (1805-1862)

After Hilarion's death, Jurbarkas was split into two parts and inherited by his two sons.

Jurbarkas was later transferred solely to one of the sons, General Ilarion Illarionovich Vassiltchikov. Although Ilarion Vassiltchikov and his wife Yekaterina (1818-1869) used to come to Jurbarkas from St. Petersburg only in summer, they took good care of the estate.

Colonel Sergei Vassiltchikov (1849-1926)

After the death of Duke Ilarion Vassiltchikov in 1862, Jurbarkas was taken over by his son Sergei Vassiltchikov, guard colonel and a person well-known in the Russian Tsar's court.

Of all the Vasilchikovs, Sergei was the most important person in terms of modernization of the manor, management of the town of Jurbakas and the development of education and culture in the area. In 1865, a school was opened on the initiative of the Vasilchikovs. They also founded and financed a home for old women and the poor. Although industry in the town was limited, all production was set up almost entirely by the Vasilchikovs. A brickyard and a brewery of the manor operated for several decades. Home industry was promoted in several ways. A school of Lithuanian textiles was established by Duchess Maria Vassiltchikov in the late 19th century. A large watermill with sawmill and wool-spinning capabilities was built in 1903. Cheese and butter manufacturing developed. In 1903, the Vassiltchikov family built the first power plant in Jurbarkas. The landlords also traded in timber.

The Vassiltchikov dukes did not resist the Lithuanian National Revival Movement which began in the early 20th century. On November 2, 1905, they allowed the first Lithuanian culture event in Jurbarkas - the staging of the comedy “Americka pirtyje” (“America in a Bathhouse”) written by brothers Antanas and Juozas Vilkutaičiai, known by the nickname ‘Keturakis’, and staged by lawyer Skirgailienė - to be organized in the barn of the manor.^[7]

The Vassiltchikov dukes also used to donate money or materials for the reconstruction of local buildings destroyed by fire.

General Illarion Sergeyevich Vassiltchikov (1881-1969)

The running of Jurbarkas was gradually taken over by Sergei's son, Illarion Sergeyevich Vassiltchikov. Illarion was married to Lidiya Leonidovna Vyazemskaya (1886-1948). In 1910, they had Princess Irina (1910-1992) and then two years later Prince Alexander (1912-1939).

Illarion Sergeyevich Vassiltchikov was a politician, the provincial Marshall of the Nobility and later, a member of the last Russian Duma and the Chairman of the Russian minority in Independent Lithuania.

Marie Vassiltchikov and the July Plot to kill Adolf Hitler

At the beginning of World War II, Marie Vassiltchikov ended up in Germany, where she got a job in the Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

On May 4, 1945, Marie married Peter Harnden on January 28, 1946. Following Peter’s demobilization, he and Marie moved to Paris. Peter died in Barcelona in 1971. Marie moved to London where she died on August 12, 1978.

She was survived by her four children: Marina Harnden (born September 15, 1948), Anthony Harnden (born in Paris February 13, 1951, died in Cadaqués January 4, 1999); Michael Harnden, (born October 10, 1954); Alexandra Harnden, (born March 18, 1956).

Tatiana Vassiltchikov

Marie’s sister, Tatiana Vassiltchikov was married to German aristocrat Paul Alfons von Metternich-Winneburg, a famous figure in international motor sports.^[13][8]

Once the greater part of Schloss Johannesburg had been rebuilt after the war, Tatiana and Paul made it their permanent home. Since the beginning of the 1990s, then a German citizen, Tatyana Metternich regularly visited St. Petersburg, where she conducted extensive charity work. In February  2003, Tatyana opened a new shelter for street children on Rustaveli Street; in the same month, President Vladimir Putin thanked her on behalf of Russia. Tatyana Ilarionovna Vassiltchikov is the author of fifteen books. Her biographical book, A Woman with Five Passports. The Tale of an Amazing Fate (St. Petersburg, 1999) has become a European bestseller. She died on July 26, 2006.^[8]

George Vassiltchikov

George Vassiltchikov went to university in Rome, Berlin and Paris. In the autumn of 1942, he moved to France and, soon after, became involved in Resistance activities, which continued until the liberation of Paris in August 1944.

His first job was in journalism in France. He was then “lured” by the Americans to go to Nuremberg to be an interpreter in the war trials. He then moved on to the UN where he worked for many years as an interpreter. He stayed with the UN world until 1976 when he went to London to work in  business.^[11]

He was married and had two children. He died in 2008 in Rolle, Switzerland.

Irena and Lidiya Vassiltchikov

Irena Vassiltchikov spent the post-war years in Italy. She was in numerous Italian films in the 1970s.^[14]

In 1980 she moved to Germany. She died on February 26, 1992.

Lidiya Leonidovna died on November 30, 1948, in Baden Baden, Bade Wurtemberg, Allemagne, aged 62 years old.