Voltveti manor is first recorded in 1601. Its Estonian name comes from its 17th-century owners, the Wolffeldts. After the Great Northern War it belonged to the Krüdeners until 1786, when it was acquired by the Stryks of Riidaja manor, who kept it until expropriation in 1919; the last owner was Heinrich von Stryk. Most of the surviving buildings date from the Stryk era in the 1800s. The two-story Late Classical stone house was completed in 1830, and its center is adorned with a four-column portico topped by reclining lion figures.
After expropriation the house held an agricultural technical school, for which it was rebuilt and enlarged several times between the 1930s and the 1970s: a third story was added, along with a side wing and a rear wing. Several heavily rebuilt outbuildings also survive, as does the manor’s former tavern by the highway, the longest tavern building in Estonia.
Owners
Wolffeldt17. saj–1737
von Krüdener1737–1786
von Stryk1786–1919
Good to know
The present place name, Tihemetsa, dates from the 1930s and adapts the German name Tignitz to Estonian; before that the place was known as Voltveti.
The manor’s former tavern by the highway is the longest tavern building in Estonia.
About two kilometers southwest of the manor, on a low hill, lies the Stryk family cemetery, of which only the granite gateposts and a couple of broken grave markers remain.
