Saldutiškis manor
Saldutiškis manor homestead is in Saldutiškis township, Utena district municipality. The name of the town has changed several times: Šilgudiškis, Salgudiškis. In the environs of the manor there were a lot of fresh water, wells, so the name of Saldutiškis could have risen from clearness of a well and also from tastiness of water.
Saldutiškis manor was known already during the times of union Lithuania, it was mentioned from the end of the XVIIIc. At that time, it was owned by Martynas Valiulis’ son Antanas. Later, at the beginning of the XIXc. the manor was acquired by Antanas Jaloveckis (1772-1852). He was mentioned as the nurturer of the manor, was buried in the graveyard of Trinkūnai village. In 1890 the manor had a rural district with villages quite distant from one another: Antalamestė, Krivasalis, Plaučiškės, Trinkūnai, Pakievenis, Pavyžintys, Varniškis, Vilkolakis, and 59 inhabitants.
Before the WWI, the manor belonged to a war engineer Boleslovas Jaloveckis. He built the palace of the manor, outbuildings, planted a large park, a garden and flower gardens, and several quarters of the forest were planted with beautiful larch trees.
Saldutiškis settlement began to evolve in 1899, when a narrow gauge railway Panevėžys-Švenčionėliai was built. Its construction was led by general Boleslovas Jaloveckis himself, who was the manor founder’s, Antanas’, grandson. Then between the narrow gauge railway station and the manor a road was built and poplars were planted.
Boleslovas Jaloveckis was a very rich man because he owned a big part of shares of Russian railways and metallurgical industry, was a deputy of the Tsarist Russian Duma (from Eastern Lithuania), generously supported Lithuanian refugees in Russia during the WWI. During this war Saldutiškis was the center of the county. The only landlord’s son Mečislovas (1876-1962) was excellently educated, worked in Vilnius land bank, travelled in Lithuania a lot and knew it well, painted 1500 watercolor works of the buildings of manors. Jaloveckiai manor was occupied by the county war commandant’s office. The old palace of classicism style was repeatedly rebuilt and other buildings changed their purpose.
At the end of 1907 Mečislovas Jaloveckis established Saldutiškis farm society. Farmers from surrounding areas also participated in its activities. In 1907 B. Jaloveckis published a booklet in Lithuanian and Polish in Vilnius, „Lithuania and Its Matters “, and also „National Lithuanian Catechism”; since 1909 he collaborated in the newspaper “Litwa“, published in Vilnius. In 1917 he fell ill with typhus and died in Saint Petersburg. The manor lost its real owner. After father’s death his son Mečislovas returned to Lithuania but did not stay in Saldutiškis. He left for Poland, then England where he died in London, in 1962.
In 1938 in the manor the Salesean monastery was established, which was active till the WWII. In 1940 the monastery was closed. During the war there was a hospital. After the war a school was established.
After Lithuania regained its independence and land reform was underway, the center of the manor was given to the municipality and Labanoras Forest Enterprise, and the palace itself for the newly establishing parish. The first pastor was priest S. Švėgžda, who was also busy with the construction of a church. For this purpose, the stone granary of the manor was adapted: on its high foundations the wooden part of the church was built with two towers. In 1918 in the manor palace Linkmenys valsčius board seated, later in the territory a school was built, which disrupted the ensemble of the manor: when it was being constructed several old buildings of the manor were pulled down.
In 2005 the manor homestead was started to be revived and nurtured by the Svitojai family. Architecture was restored as well as polychrome painting of halls and moldings.
B. Jaloveckis established a dendrological park of rare plants in Saldutiškis manor. Rose gardens were grown, so the manor was called the manor of roses. The area of the park is1.9ha. There 22 species of trees and shrubs grow. There is a 50m long small-leaf linden alley, which used to be called “the alley of love”; there grow large elms (1.4m in diameter). From introduced plant species more valuable are Norway maple, European silver firs, silver firs, gray walnut and others. In 1958 the park was announced a nature monument and has been under protection since then. The complex of buildings of the neoclassical period of historicism of Saldutiškis manor comprise: the manor palace, built in 1830 and reconstructed in the second half of the XIXc., the remains of the granary (built in 1843, its walls were used for building Saldutiškis Church of St. Francis of Assisi in 1928), the icehouse built at the end of the XIXc. – the beginning of the XXc., remains of the barn and stables (built in 1898). At present the manor develops its cultural, economic and educational activities.
