Otto Johann von Uexküll founded Pirgu manor in 1662 on land split off from Angerja. Its name comes from Pirita Convent, which owned the area in the Middle Ages. In 1819 the manor was bought by Gideon von Staal, who had ruined himself building up the grand Hõreda manor. In Pirgu, the smallest and cheapest manor in Juuru parish, he wanted to echo Hõreda’s style on a smaller scale. So in the 1820s a small but grand High Classical house went up, complete with a domed roof, a balcony above the portico and columns in the hall. Its wings project at both the front and the back.
After World War II the manor fell out of use and into ruin, and it was restored in 1984–1987 from a fairly hopeless state. Privately owned since 1994, it has become an events venue. A few outbuildings survive, the most notable being a small colonnaded granary.
Owners
von Uexküll1662
von Peetz18. saj
von Staal1819–1847
von Wulffsdorff1847–1887
von Hagemeister1887–1901
von Wetter-Rosenthal1901–1919
Good to know
The manor’s name comes from Pirita Convent, which owned the area in the Middle Ages.
The Wetter-Rosenthals kept the manor center even after the 1919 expropriation.
The banks of the small Atla River running through the manor are laid out as a park, crossed by several wooden bridges.
