The manor of Ahja was first mentioned in 1553. The current two-storey, Baroque style main building was erected in 1749 by Guillemot de Villebois. Later, the manor belonged to the von Lipharts, von Löwis of Menars and von Brasches. In 1929-97, the building housed a local school. About a kilometre from the manor's centre is a chapel (with a beautiful Neo-Renaissance portal) and family graveyard of the von Brasche's family.
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Claude Monet lived for forty-three years, from 1883 to 1926, in Giverny. With a passion for gardening as well as for colours, he conceived both his flower garden and water garden as true works of art. Walking through his house and gardens, visitors can still feel the atmosphere which reigned at the home of the Master of Impressionnism and marvel at the floral compositions and nymphéas, his greatest sources of inspiration.
In 1890 Monet had enough money to buy the house and land outright and set out to create the magnificent gardens he wanted to paint. Some of his most famous paintings were of his garden in Giverny, famous for its rectangular Clos normand, with archways of climbing plants entwined around colored shrubs, and the water garden, formed by a tributary to the Epte, with the Japanese bridge, the pond with the water lilies, the wisterias and the azaleas.
Today the Monet's Garden is open to the public.