Karlamuiza manor’s Pomological Garden

The old Kārļamuiža Orchard, also known as the Zīversu Ābeļdārzs (Sievers’ Orchard), still retains traces of the time when there was an extensive pomological garden here, and one of the 19th century’s largest tree nurseries in the Baltic States.

Every traveller to the Kārļamuiža area will notice the scattered enclaves of sometimes well-tended, sometimes overgrown apple orchards and the magnificent, flowering clusters of acacias, Hungarian and Amur lilacs, barberries, bird cherry trees, mock orange trees, peonies, spireas, roses and hazel trees. They are the witnesses of a bygone and bustling past.

In the 1870s, Count Emanuel von Sievers (1817–1909), who was the manor’s owner at the time, and his son Alexander von Sievers (1851–1935), established a pomological garden (pomology is a field of botany that studies fruit trees and bushes) and a tree nursery. A plant catalogue published in 1912 shows that the tree nursery at that time contained more than 1,450 varieties of fruit trees, ornamental shrubs and trees, and produced about 30,000 plants per year. From 1871 to 1914 Kārļamuiža was home to the first horticulture school in the Baltic States, where many later well-known horticulturists received an education.

These past accomplishments inspired the owners of Kārļamuiža Hotel who continue to cultivate the apple trees in order to preserve the old varieties. They also maintain and renew the historic manor landscape park’s tree plantations. More than 100 different old varieties of apples still grow in the hotel’s orchards today. The extent of the old gardens continue to astonish, especially if you visit the hotel when the apple trees are blossoming, or during the apple harvest.

Additional info

Onsite accommodation and dining.