In 1387 Lithuanian Grand Duke and King of Poland Jogaila, on occasion of accepting Christianity, donated this place to Vilnius' Episcopate.

He hired two famous architects, Marcin Knackfus and Laurynas Gucevičius, to rebuild the palace in the Neoclassical style.

Eventually, the central building of the palace was pulled down on the order of a new owner, prince Ludwig Wittgenstein, who bought Verkiai in 1839.

It is attested that the first known photographs in present-day Lithuania were taken there in 1839, when Karol Podczaszyński made a daguerreotype of the palace which was intended to be rebuilt.

Since 1960 the ensemble belongs to the Lithuanian Institute of Botany [lt] now part of the Nature Research Center.