Degsniai/Degsnys manor (XIX c. Degsnėnai)

The manor is located on the left side of the highway Utena–Zarasai, in Sudeikiai neighborhood.  It owned 63 voloks of land, 7 lakes, 2 estates, 7 villages. There has remained a brick dwelling building since the middle of the XIXc.  In 1889, Degsnėnai together with Jotaučiai manor and Kastulynė were owned by three landlord’s Catholic’s Povilas Koziela sons: Steponas, Tomas and Adomas. They owned 778 tithes of farmland, 81 tithes of uncultivated land, 380 tithes of forest (in total 1244 tithes). Degsnys manor was owned by Steponas, Jotaučiai manor by Adomas, and Kastulynė by Tomas. There were 4 inns: in Kirkliai, Degučiai, Rukliai and Sudeikiai, and in the manor there was a brewery. From Deksnys manor a small manor Taukeliai was separated (there in the former chapel the Kozielos family were buried). In the summer of 1882 the peasants in Degsniai manor rebelled: they refused to perform their corvee for the manor, and by waving with spades knocked off the overseer’s epaulettes. The peasants revolted because of servitudes – the right to pastures. The Tsar’s army was called and the peasants were punished. The owners of Degsnys and Jotaučiai manors donated 2 voloks of land to the church in Sudeikiai. The Kozielos family were buried in the churchyard (there are still monuments there). Before a church in Sudeikiai was built they prayed in Taukeliai stone chapel where there was a small altar. It was said that the Poklevskiai had lived there since the times of the Tsar Ivan the Terrible, and only later converted to Catholicism. Tomas Koziela was educated, unmarried, had a lot of old books in Kastulynė. In Degsnys manor there also were cabinets full of books. He had paintings that depicted Lithuanian dukes. He built a house near the river Vieša for Liudvisė (Bagdonaitė) in Utena, where there was a pro-gymansium later. In the fields of Degsnys manor there are 3 small hillforts, probably from the times of fights with Livonia. In 1872 the Kozielos seized Novyna homestead near Toleikiai village. The farmers drove out the new owner, but the landlords called gendarmes. Steponas Koziela lived there for quite a long time before he left for Poland. In 1923 in the manor there were 5 farms, 80 residents.