The Lieporai Manor, A Residence of the Barons von Grotthuss

Acta Academiae Artium Vilnensis

Abstract

The development of housing and, alongside, the appearance and de- velopment of manors at the border of Livonia and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania have so far not received enough research attention. After the Battles of Grunewald in 1410 and Wilkomierz in 1435, which marked the end of intense fighting in these lands, the Bauska Castle was built in the middle of the 15th century, and the processes of colonisation started. The Votic people of Finnish origin (German Kreewing, Latvian krieviņi) were settled in the sparsely inhabited territory of Eastern Semigallia. The intensifying deforestation and the densifying network of settlements brought about a need for border regulations (1426, 1473, 1529, 1541, 1545, 1582, 1583–1586, 1587). At the same time, in the 15th century, the Livonian Order started to distribute manor properties in Semigallia to its vassals. The earliest recorded Finno-Ugric form of the name of the Lieporai Manor – Żybort muÿża/moÿża (1539, 1586) (Lithuanian ‘manor’ – muyza, moyze, dialectal muižė, Livonian moize, mois, Estonian mõis, Votic moise, mõiza) is most likely related to these colonisation processes.

The Lieporai field in the Upytė powiat appeared in written sources in the 16th century. In earlier sources (e.g., the 15th–16th century border agreements between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Livonia), this place name is not mentioned. Until the end of the Teutonic wars in 1290, this territory belonged to Eastern Semigallia – the Upmale land, and, quite likely, was its composite part – district. It might have taken its name from the Lieporas rivulet (in the 13th century sources, only the Plonė land with the Šiurpė and Guostagalis castle districts are mentioned in this part of Upmale). In the times of Livonia and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, in the 14th–16th century, the Lieporai district became a field, in which smaller economic-administrative units – manors – were gradually formed. The cartography of the toponyms mentioned in the Upytė castle and district court books from 1584 to 1615 reveals that the Lieporai field between the Šešėvė and Švitinis Rivers might have extended over an area of circa 5,705 hectares.

Gradually, between the 16th and 19th century, seven units (manors) were formed in the Lieporai field. They have retained their original names: the private Lieporai manors of von Grotthuss and Brasch (the last owners), Albertiškiai (Albrychtowo alias Lepar), Medvilionys (from the 17th c. until 1769 also called Lieporai – Medwiłany alias Lepary), Lieporai noble village (with 10–11 hearths), as well as Juodeikiai, Vengriškiai, and the Samogitian bishop’s Kriukai, which most likely were later renamed.

The Lieporai manor changed hands and names many times. The earliest known owners of the manor, which was then called Žybartai (Żybort moÿża alias Lepary w okolicy Leparach), were the Druwe family (Polish Dru- wa, Druw, Druf, Druff, German Druwe, Traube), mentioned in the Upytė court books of 1653, where it was indicated that the master of the Livonian Order, Hermann von Bruggenei (alias Hasenkamp, 1535–1549), by a privilege of 1539, granted the manor, since olden times called Żybort muÿza at the border of Courland [Livonia] and Lithuania, as a fief to Jan Druwa for his honest service. Ac- cording to a border correction adopted by King Stephen Báthory’s commission for regulating the border between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Courland in 1583/1586, the manor property was transferred from Livonia to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and granted to the Curonian knight Jodok Druwe with the inheritance rights. The Lieporai Manor was owned by the noble Druwa family (in 1661–1685/1717, it was also called Karklynė (Karklien)) from 1539 to 1666/1676, followed by von Pfeilitzer gen. Franck, in 1666/1676–1826/1834, von Tiesenhausen in 1763–1773, and finally, von Grotthuss in 1826/1834–1940. Otto Ewald Friedrich von Grotthuss (1774–1848, Berstele line) who acquired the Lieporai Manor circa 1826/1834 is considered to be the founder of this branch.

The earliest known reference to the manor at the Lieporas rivulet can be found in a complaint of 30 August 1586. There are more data about the Lieporai manor property from the 18th century. Yet, the sale-purchase acts compiled at that time, compared to those of the Daunorava or Malgūžiai (1763) and Wigandt’s Lieporai (1759) Manors, do not include detailed inventories of the Lieporai (Grotthuss) Manor, and the cultivated crops are not listed. In 1763– 1773, the Lieporai-Albrechtavas Manor was a separate property (without the large villages of Gailiūnai and Sodininkai and the Karklynė folwark), and its lands were situated on the site of the later known Albertiškės folwark. Between 1768 and 1775, in the times of Pfeilitzer gen. Franck, this property was connect- ed to Lieporai-Karklynė, owned by the same family. In 1854, the Grotthuss’s Lieporai manor property extended over 1,037 dessiatins of land, of which 18 dessiatins were farmhouses with gardens and vegetable gardens, 270 – arable land, and 108 were fields, and included the villages of Andrešiūnai, Andriejūnai (Indriliūnai), Maželiai, Sodininkai and Gailiūnai (in total 18). The plan of the Lieporai property compiled in 1885 (the situation after the peasant reform of 1861) shows a property east of the Lieporas rivulet, compactly extending to- wards the northsouth. Before the land reform of 1922, the estate had an area of 429.51 hectares, of which 151 hectares remained not appropriated.

The structure of the Lieporai estate (an irregular trapezoid shape), as can be seen from the cartographic material, dates to the late 17th and 18th century and has some adopted baroque features – buildings from the periods of classicism and historicism encircling an open rectangular courtyard. From the 19th century until 1940, like other medium-sized manor estates, it consisted of four parts: 1) the main courtyard (with the master’s house, a storage barn, an overseer’s house-servants’ quarters, a house for farmhands and a flowerbed in front – a new classicist element); 2) an adjacent auxiliary courtyard with cattle-sheds and a barn; 3) to the north east, a more remotely located production zone with a forge; 4) to the east, a barnyard. A root-crop garden was planted next to the auxiliary courtyard, on the south side. From the south, the manor estate was surrounded by a landscape park with a garden, and on the east side, there were ponds and a hothouse, in total, 15–27 buildings. The park had a specially designated place for beehives and for burying dogs and horses, and water fowl lived on the ponds (an aviary was nearby). The estate could be accessed from the Kriukai–Žeimelis road, and from the west side – by a planted birch alley.