Vyžuonėlės manor (Blagodatj)

The manor was founded in the XIXc., when some part of land was separated from the Count’s of Vyžuonos manor E. Čapskis, land. The manor is located on the right side of the road Utena-Vyžuonos. In 1879, Vyžuonėlės was donated to the Russian officer Vladimir Nikolajevič Veriovkin, for the merits. He owned 1982 tithes of land, including 642 tithes of forest. Later the manor went to his son Piotr Veriovkin, the governor of Kaunas and Vilnius, and a military service friend of Tsar Nicholas II. In Vyžuonėlės there was an estate which in the XVIIIc. was owned by P. Praniauskas. He beat serf’s M. Sauliukas’ wife, for which Sauliukas killed his lord. Sauliukas was sentenced in Vilkmergė (Ukmergė) and “his body was quartered”, and the parts of his body were stuck on poles on roadsides. Besides, in 1789 Vyžuonėlės was owned by duke Druckis-Liubeckis, against whom peasants revolted. During the times of Lithuania’s independence P. Veriovkin owned the reduced piece of land left to him, farmed well, kept a lot of cattle, supplied Utena dairy (contributed to its construction) with milk. He also overtook the construction of a small orthodox church in the center of Utena. In Vyžuonėlės manor his daughter Marijana Veriovkina lived, who was an artist, I. Repin’s disciple. I. Repin himself once visited his disciple there. The Veriovkins had a good library, a lot of paintings, in the parlor there hung the painting of Vytis. Till nowadays there have remained some buildings: a wooden dwelling house decorated with Russian ornaments, a shed for carriages, a barn, two threshing-floor barns, a stable, a house for farmhands.  On the opposite side of the turning from the highway to Vyžuonėlės there has remained a monument with dates 1885 and 1896, which were the dates of the deaths of Elizaveta Dragan-Veriovkina and her husband Vladimir, and in the niche, a sculpture of Virgin Mary. In the manor Vladimir erected a monument to a horse – the savior. That was a stone which later was used for the foundations by another neighbor.