The history of the family in Vinksnupiai
Perhaps the most important reason why we decided to take up the restoration of the manor is the history of our family – the Luscikauskai family. Although this manor never actually belonged to our family, but very close to it, in the same village of Vinksnupiai, where our great-grandparents lived. It is important to highlight that even now the manor is not owned by us, but by a Public Institution, which activities including the Fundraising for the Reconstruction of the Manor, are strictly supervised and controlled by the Lithuanian Government. The works are led by the initiator Rita Bieliauskaitė, with the help of her sister Ramunė and a team of like-minded people.
But most likely it may be worth writing about us and our family history in Vinksnupiai because it explains why we took on this comprehensive, highly accountable, and very expensive task of rebuilding the manor..
Unlike the manor, the homestead cherished by our great-grandparents in Vinksnupiai was totally destroyed when the Red Army was pushing the regiments of Nazi Germany from Lithuania. When the German tanks, which were hiding in the Orchard of great-grandparents land, were being bombed by Soviet aviation, great-grandparents’ houses, and all the outbuildings were flattened to the earth. In a few hours nothing was left except the ruins from the beautiful life led by the family. Our great-grandparents with our grandmother Ksavere, her sisters and a brother were left homeless but lucky to be alive. There were many people like that. Unfortunately, the great-grandparents did not rebuild their small-holding, and therefore only a Memorial can be found there. The land owned by our great grandparents was sold to others.
Vinksnupiai in granny’s stories was always a special place. Her memories of how she lived before World War II (WW2) have always been like a fairy tale to us. Maybe that’s why these memories shared with us are also so magical to us, far away from sadness and misfortune. Instead of the farmstead you can now find only a monument erected by ourselves to commemorate our past, and the residents of Vinksnupiai, most of whom are resting in the nearby cemetery in Alksnine, and nearby still standing the lonely Vinksnupiai manor, with its magnificent past outliving the history.







