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Utena Tourism Information Center

Leliūnai manor

Architecture

Leliūnai lies 12 km southwest of Utena, at the intersection, of the former Kaunas - Zarasai - Daugavpils highway and Skudutiškis - Anykščiai road. Leliūnai old manor land lies half a kilometer from that place.
This estate was already known during the Lithuanian Grand Duchy time. In the XVII century, the Pomarnackiai ruled it, after that- the Arcimavičiai. In 1788, Leliūnai estate owner Juozas Pomarnackas built a second 12x28 m² wooden church to honor St. Juozapas in Leliūnai. It was cross- shaped; the bell tower had a signature bell. From the outside the walls were planked, inside there was an altar with St. Joseph with the Child Jesus. Wooden belfry had three bells. In 1793, a parish was established. In 1795, a “valakas” (about 21 ha) of land was donated to the church, and the land was called Starkiškis. In 1794, they started to compile heritage books. The dwelling house of the manor at the time had already had a chimney (apparently, there still were some estates with no chimneys). The estate had a chapel, trashing-floor, three barns, granary and brewery. Eight local families from Leliūnai village belonged to the estate. Four families of the Grigaliūnai had an additional name of Puodžiūnai. There also lived a widow Marijona Petronienė with her children, Simonas and Jurgis Kvikliai, and a newcomer Martynas Beikus. Some inventory of the Leliūnai estate, Vilkmergės (currently Ukmergė) “pavietas” (administrative-territorial unit of the GDL) dating back to 1775 April 03, is still found. Every peasant in the estate had to perform corvee work 3 days a week, they also performed 6 major ,, gvoltus” (forced labor), they did guarding, the women did laundering, planting, weeding, shearing the sheep, mushroom picking, they also collected berries, nuts, etc. If any of those peasants wanted to farm in more than a half of the “valakas”, he had to inform the manor and pay a certain amount of money under the agreement. The peasants could not bear poverty and oppression any longer and singly or in groups, they opposed to the landlords. The movement against abolition of the serfdom spread from estate to estate, including Leliūnai estate. This is evident from the message to Vilkmerges (currently Ukmergė) “ispravnik" (chief police official of the district) in which landlord Vladislav Pomarneckis complains:" ...  some did not perform corvee at an appointed time, causing damage this way... ".
After the Russian- Japanese war, people started rebelling and rioting. Landlord Siziniauskas from Leliūnai manor allowed his servants to go to meetings of “cicilikai” (socialists) and supported them. Siziniauskas was the chief of the fire brigade. In 1865, Russian “cerkvinis” type (Orthodox) school was founded in Leliūnai, and next to it, Leliūnai estate owner Siziniauskas established a Polish school. Neither the Russian nor the Polish school was popular, a small number of learners attended them, since peasants tried to teach their children to read and write Lithuanian. After Lithuania regained its independence, the estate lands were distributed to the volunteers of fights for independence and estate cottars. The landlords could no longer have any cultural or economic influence on the people.
Over time, use and purpose of the Leliūnai estate changed. The building of the manor is rectangular, just one floor, with a basement. The building was reconstructed. Inside, the rooms are arranged on both sides of the corridor. The ground floor of the building is built of stones with broken stone filling. The first floor is of red brick. During the “kolkhoz’ period, Leliūnai collective farm office was founded in the manor. Currently, the manor belongs to a private owner.
Up to this day, only one Leliūnai estate building has remained - the manor house, which in 1991 December 23, was entered in the list of architectural monuments. There are also single trees and two ponds from the original old park.

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