Meškalaukis Manor

This manor is located in Pasvalys district, the edership of Joniškėlis in the village Meškalaukis. On the 2nd of December 1848, Mr. Eustachijus Karpis in his letter of donation divided his personal property among four sons, in this letter we can find the manor of Meškalaukis mentioned. Since 1868, this mansion was owned by Mr. Felicijonas Karpis. According to a division act of the 20th of December of 1868, Joniškėlis, Gustoniai, Neirai, Palėvenė, Senkonys, Paežeriai, Zubriškiai, Meškalaukis, Rėkyva and Gilvydžiai were his proprety. On the 23rd of August 1880, the assessor of the Association of nobility of Panevėžys district Mr. Beresnevicius made a list of the real property of Karpiai, and described in detail the manor of Meškalaukis’ buildings: a long wooden manor-house with a basement warehouse, a cattle-shed, a barn, a sheepfold, another cattle-shed and three houses for peasants and servants. There was a well, a pond and a garden with 88 fruit- trees, surrounded by trees. The mansion stood in the southern end of the village and had 240.91 tithes of land (about 262 ha). After 1883, the relationships between the Meškalaukis peasants and Mr. Benediktas Karpis changed for the worse. The property owner wanted to expand estate holdings, and forbade the peasants to use the land, which previously was left for their needs. The residents of Meškalaukis brought proceedings against Mr. Karpis, but unsuccessfully: it did not end even until the First World War. What is more, Mr. Karpis not only expanded its estate lands, but also started to rebuild some buildings. He planned to build a new brick house, to plant a park and a garden until 1900. In 1908, the work was completed: the new two-storey red-bricked mansion with a tin roof was built about half a kilometre south of the old one. At the beginning of the land reform in Lithuania, Mr. B. Karpis gave his manor to Mr. Banevičiaus, who was a steward of the Joniškėlis manor for a long time. In 1929, the manor was divided in individual parcels. Mr. Banevičius was neglect on his duties and the manor quickly went into debts. In 1933, proceedings started in the courts for non-refundable debt s and the manor was sold in the auction. In 1938, Mr. Juozas and Melanija Meškauskai became the owners of the Meškalaukis mansion and its 80 ha of land. They emigrated to the West Europe just before the Russian occupation. The manor was nationalized and a state farm was established there. In 1948, the mansion housed an NKVD crew. The soldiers moved on in 1952 and the manor was transferred to a collective farm (a kolkhoz), the mansion housed some families. Nowadays it is a property of the Pasvalys municipality and its condition is described as poor. The building is ruined, but a couple of pensioners’ families still live here. You can see only some trees and a lime alley in a place where the gorgeous park stood.