Great Daunorava Manor

Great Daunorava Manor

Daunorava was first mentioned in written sources on 10 March 1557. To be more exact, its name appeared in the privilege issued by Sigismund Augustus in Vilnius, which allowed the Vilnius Voivode, who was then the governor of the state-land (so-called Economy) Šiauliai, Mikolaj Radvila (Radziwill) the Black, to give a large reward to his servant Mikolaj Mashkovski, who was carrying out the Volok Reform in Šiauliai district.

From 1557 to 1623, Daunorava was the property of the noblemen Mashkovskis from Mazovia (Poland). Later, between 1623 and 1665, it belonged to the Lithuanian noblemen Marcinkevičius; from 1665 to 1684 – to the German barons von Tranckwitz (leased by their relatives the von Pletenbergs between 1684 and 1691); from 1684 to 1785 – to the German barons von der Brüggen (leased by their relatives von Wiegandt from 1700 to 1779); from 1785 to 1797 – von Mantouffel - Szöge, from 1797 to 1904/1916 – to von Pfeilitzer - Franks and from 1904/1916 to 1940 – to counts Keyserlingk.  In 1940, the estate was nationalised.

Before the peasant reform of 1861, the Daunorava Manor estate covered about 2, 622 ha; it included the manors of the Great and the Small Daunorava, nine villages (Bertaučiai, Degėsiai, Likaičiai, Nartaučiai, Satkūnai, Paberžiai, Pročiūnai, Sargūnai, Vytaučiai), the forest of Daunorava (about 720 ha), and a total population of about 550 people in the 18^th and 19^th century.

In the second half of the 17^th century, the Great Daunorava Manor Homestead consisted of 14-15 wooden buildings with straw roofs, and at the end of the 18^th century – 21 buildings, including two residential buildings – the hosts’ house and a family house, and the others - outbuildings, industrial buildings.

The manor homestead was substantially rebuilt in the middle of the 19^th century (most of the buildings between 1844 and 1855) under Julius von Frank (1800-1877). The features of the buildings are typical of traditional Curonian German architecture, which is quite common in Northern Lithuania. The manor homestead consisted of three or four parts: a representative building, a farm, a production/ industrial building and a granary. The chapel is also marked on the 1865 map of the Curonian Governorate and is mentioned in the 1940 nationalisation file. This complex of buildings, with its park and ponds, covering about 7-8.5 ha, enlivened the landscape of the Žiemgala Lowland.

The Great Daunorava Manor Homestead is a unique complex of mid-19^th century traditional Žiemgala wooden and clay buildings with Fachwerk gables.

The Daunorava Manor Homestead was entered into the Register of Cultural Property in 1992. At present, only a few of the buildings of the Great Daunorava Manor Farmstead, which were built in the middle of the 19^th century, have survived: a wooden residential house of the hosts (1853), a brick stewards’ house (farm labourers’ building), a clay barn (1844), a stone dairy (storage building), a stone barn and the ruins of a stone and clay barn (1855).

Public exhibition Dundurnieki

The exposition is intended to make Daunorava Manor relevant to the present as a symbol of the manor culture of the Žiemgala region (ethno-cultural self-consciousness region) and the cultural heritage of one of the largest Latvian communities in Lithuania - the Dundurnieki people. This outdoor exposition presents photographs of several Dundurnieki families (Dunciai, Grinevičiai, Pūkiai, Timpiai, Bulyčiai, Lotišai, Vitčiai, Lukstai, Dambiai, Krūminiai, Kaminskai, Starkai, Buliai, Briedžiai, Šlapakai, Figorai, Juttai[31] ).

The Latvian diaspora of Daunorava - the Dundurnieki - formed in the 17^th –18^th centuries as a result of the practice of the German barons, who owned the manor, of moving the inhabitants from one property to another. The community of Daunorava Manor consisted of somewhat between 563 and 625 people in 1795-1846 and of 710 people in 1923. Over the centuries, the distinctive way of life, customs and material culture, building traditions and cultural landscape of the Daunurnieki people have developed. They were closer to the Latvians of Curonian Spit than to the Lithuanians of neighbouring villages.

In the interwar period, the Dundurnieki had the oldest public primary school in Lithuania (1917), later moved to Daunoraičiai (1928-1940). The Latvian Educational Society of Joniškis was active (1921), with a theatre and a library attached to it. These educational and cultural institutions, together with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Joniškis, helped to preserve Latvian identity until 1940-1950.

After 1940, the Dundurnieki community experienced cataclysms that irreversibly affected its development. The annexation of Lithuania led to the adoption of laws and prohibitions restricting education, culture, church and social life. The Latvian language was no longer taught at the Daunoraičiai Primary School, the Joniškis Latvian Educational Society and Library were closed, and the spiritual centre of the community - the Joniškis Evangelical Lutheran Church - was closed too. The community was also shaken during the Second World War: some young men were taken into the Latvian SS Volunteer Legion, others into the Red Army, and some joined the partisans. Post-war deportations, repressions, mass collectivisation and land reclamation (the villages of Degučiai, Likaičiai, Pročiūnai II, Sargūnai were destroyed), migrations (to towns and district centres in Lithuania and Latvia) irreversibly changed the ethnic composition of the Daunorava district, which had developed over centuries. As a result, at the beginning of the 21^st century, only a few Dundurnieki people were left in the area who identified themselves as Latvians.

The exhibition is part of the project “Daunorava Renaissance” (2021). It uses photographs from the archive collection “Daunorava Latvians – Dundurnieki” kept in the Šiauliai Aušra Museum.