Merkinė Manor (Šalčininkai)
Merkinė Manor was a residential manor in Merkinė village, Šalčininkai District Municipality, Lithuania.[1][2] It was the location of the self-proclaimed Paulava Republic, established by Paweł Ksawery Brzostowski in 1769. In 1770 Brzostowski hired Italian architect Carlo Spampani to build a new manor building in Neoclassical style. The building remained intact until after World War II, when it became a part of a sovkhoz, a Soviet-era farmstead. According to art historian Vladas Drėma, the manor was destroyed when one of the sovkhoz directors set fire to it to hide the traces of his grain thievery.[3] Only ruins remained and the manor has not been rebuild since, however, the area around it has been cleaned up and turned into a minor tourist attraction, with a memorial stone to commemorate the manor and the Paulava Republic.[4]
References
- Merkinės dvaras – arba tai kas iš jo liko Archived 10 June 2015 at the Wayback Machine (in Lithuanian)
- Markinė Manor photos (miestai.net) (in Lithuanian)
- Drėma V., Naikinom, nesaugojom. Ar atkursim?, „Švyturys”, 1988, nr. 23, p. 8 (in Lithuanian)
- Merkinės dvaras (Paulavos respublika) (in Lithuanian)