A manor house built in XIX century, it’s now a place to meet up with friends and family.
The Neo-Renaissance manor house was originally built between 1860-1863 for the noble Mol family. By 1922, the property had been acquired by the government to function as a primary school for the village of Ardava.
Life at the Ardava Primary School at Ardava Manor from 1934-1943 as recounted by Lidija Odeiko and Vija Liepa (née Odeiko) to their family.
Odeiko
Helena Broks (1905-1975) was the daughter of a farmer in the village of Lieli Leimani. Alberts Odeiko (1903-1938) was the son of a factory worker in Rīga. Helena and Alberts met in Aglona and were married there in 1927. They lived in Somerseta, where their eldest daughter Lidija was born in 1930 and their second daughter Vija in 1932. In 1934 Helena was assigned to be the principal of the primary school at Ardava Manor.
The family apartment occupied the left wing when viewed from the front. A hallway ran down the center from the central building to the wooden verandah at the end. On the front side of the building was an office for Helena, a dining room, and a kitchen. On the opposite side of the hallway was a bedroom for the parents (closer to the verandah) and another for the girls. The office also served as a living room.
Life in Ardava
The school was the center of life in Ardava, also serving as a community hall and event center for weddings, parties, and the like, and was busy year-round.
Light was by kerosene lamps until the German occupation, when a generator was installed in the manor building. There was a large, deep well for fresh water. Rainwater was collected from the gutters and used for washing clothes since it lacked calcium and made the clothes softer.
Manor Building
Alberts and Helena cared a lot about making sure the manor and property were always clean and well maintained.
The building was painted white inside and out. The interior paint was refreshed every other year. The wood floors had intricate parquet designs.
Wartime Narrative: 1940
Following the Soviet invasion in the spring of 1940, Helena was demoted from principal but was allowed to remain as a teacher. A teacher by the name of Jačuks replaced her, whether due to him having Russian sympathies or simply sexism on the part of the Soviets is unknown.
Wartime Narrative: 1941
In the summer of 1941, Helena and the girls were staying with Donats in Lielie Leimani when the Germans invaded and pushed out the Soviets. During this discord they were forced to hide in the woods. When they finally returned home to Ārdava, sometime after the Germans completed their invasion of the country in July 1941, they discovered that Helena had been a listed target for the Soviet mass deportations of June 1941.
Soviet soldiers had come to search for her at the manor before retreating from the Germans. The apartment had been ransacked, and many personal items like the family photo albums had been stolen or destroyed. Mr. Kotlers was killed during the Soviet retreat, leaving behind his pregnant widow. No one was sure which side was responsible.
Wartime Narrative: 1944
As the German eastern front began to collapse in August 1944 and the Soviets started approaching, Helena took the girls back to her parents’ home for safety. She returned to Ardava, where the Germans were preparing to retreat.
Knowing she was a target for the Soviets, they offered to take her with them and told her she should get the children so they would not be separated. They packed up necessities in blankets and loaded them on a truck to Daugavpils. The Germans took them from Daugavpils to a farm in Vidzeme, where they hid for a week, before the soldiers returned and took them to Riga.
The Odeiko family made their way to Vienna, Austria where Helena found work and the girls stayed on a farm in nearby Ramsau. In the spring they moved to a farm near Fleishwangen, Germany, and after the war ended the girls were able to restart Lavian school in nearby Ebenweiler. Helena and Vija left Germany for the United States in 1950.