HISTORY
Oti, The oldest estate in Saaremaa!
The oldest manor in Saaremaa, Oti (Peudorf in German) was privatized already in the beginning of the 14th century. In these populated and fertile areas, the first fiefdoms were created. The first information concerning Oti manor dates from the year 1309. It seems that in Saaremaa this manor was in the possession of the Order of Teutonic Knights and, until the Jüriöö uprising, the economic unit of Pöide Order castle. The first owner was Johan Jkeskole van Poyde from 1436.
A very remarkable family in Old-Livonian history, Uexküll, did not have such an important role in Saaremaa as on the mainland but most probably Uexküll's ancestors participated in the conquest of Saaremaa in the 13th century.
Oti manor remained as Uexküll's only hereditary possession in Saaremaa until the beginning of the 18th century when the family died out. From this four centuries long period, the most famous is Otto von Uexküll (died in 1618) - who was the district magistrate and royal chief of Kuressaare fortress. He had served in Denmark as a cavalry captain. He received new confirmation about his old possessions from the Danish King, Christian IV, because the old documents proving his ownership had been destroyed when Maasilinn burned in 1575. During the second half of the Danish rule, the possessions of Oti manor had grown, so that the grandson of Otto von Uexküll, Johann (Hans) von Uexküll, received confirmation from the Swedish protector, Andreas Erichson Hästehufud, that he would get 18 hectars of cultivated fields surrounding the manor together with Veere and Välta villages. It is possible that this period was the golden age for the manor.
During the reduction period of manor houses, Oti manor was expropriated in 1689 but was rented to the widow of Alexander von Uexküll - Gertruta. Alexander was the second son of Johann von Uexküll. During Alexander von Uexküll's time, the manor got into debt, so that in 1707, when the proprietorship of Frommhold von Vietinghoff (son-in-law of Alexander) was restored, only a small manor with a few acres of cultivated fields was left. A few months after getting back the possessions, he died. His wooden coat of arms epitaph, originally in Pöide church, belongs to the Saaremaa Museum collection now.
Oti went to Aderkas as a heritage
During the Great Northern War in 1710 ,Oti manor was devastated by the Russian troops, all the buildings burned. The plague that followed, killed most of the peasants in the mansion and around it. The widow of Frommhold von Vietinghoff, Ursula Elisabeth (died 1742), managed to survive through this confusion and married in 1711 a major from Livonia, Fabian Gustav von Aderkas (1668-1725). Although they did not have any children, in 1725 Ursula Elisabeth left her manor to his stepson, Gotthard Wilhelm von Aderkas (1706-1769), establishing a strong dynasty of Aderkas? in that manor and in Saaremaa. There have been many well-known military officers and government officials in the Aderkas family.
In the first half of the 18th century the Aderkas family was able to increase the possessions of Oti manor to over 10 acres of cultivated fields. The son of Gotthard Wilhelm von Aderkas, also Gotthard Wilhelm von Aderkas, (1741-1813) established a family chapel at Pöide cemetery. The wonderful architecture of this classic style building is integrated with sculptures of the Aderkas coat of arms on the pediment. There are two Dorian pillars at the entrance. Between them and below rounded windows were sculptural niches, which contained two statues "Person with sand-glass" and "Peter" (now located in the Saaremaa museum). In 1898 the chapel was restored.
Gotthard Emmanuel von Aderkas (1773-1861), one of the 14 children of Gotthard Wilhelm, studied in Göttingen and achieved a high diplomatic position in the Russian czar's realm. He spent a long time working for the St. Petersburg school government, in social welfare and was the president of the Imperial Philantropy Association. He spent the last two years of his life in Saaremaa. His sister Augusta Christina was married to Johann Wilhelm Ludvig von Luce, one of the most prominent cultural figures in Saaremaa.
Karl Wilhelm Ottokar gave the Manor a new main building
Provincial judge and cavalry captain, Berend Woldemar von Aderkas (1777-1836) was the father of Karl Wilhelm Ottokar von Aderkas who built the main building of the manor in the way we see it preserved today. In his youth he was in the Russian czars army, where he was the lieutenant of the bodyguard, colonel of the Household guards and the Real Estate Counselor. From 1864 till 1865 he was the marshal of the knighthood. The most extensive construction work on Oti manor are connected with his name. From his first name, Ottokar, comes Oti, the name used for about 150 years for the manor.
The oldest part, resting on the arched cellar, is built in the first half of the 18th century after the Great Northern War. Later the building was widened with the balconies resting on thin pillars from both sides. The present look of the main building is a little eclectic but representative and exemplifies the historic late-classicism style. It got that look in the middle of last century. The manor is ornamented with rich ashlar decoration - corners from dolomite, edges of the eaves, the cartouches of the windows decorated with rosettes. The main entrance has the coat of arms of the Aderkas family with the date, 1850. Today, only the exterior frame has been preserved because reconstruction and decay have changed the interior of the building very much.
The Song of the Aderkas
If Karl Wilhelm Ottokar von Aderkas immortalized himself as the builder of the manor, then his older son, district magistrate Woldemar Alexander Emanuel von Aderkas (1849-1908), was introduced to music by a famous composer in Pöide, Konstantin Tuttav, and he remained interested in music, so much so that the islanders know even today to whom Oti manor belonged. "Aaderkassi" or "Otimöisa song" is composed after punitive troops came to Saaremaa in 1905. Oti manor was not in the center of the resistance, although some arson happened there as well. Local peasants were angry at the neighboring Uuemöisa owner, von Nolcken. The introduction of the song, today almost forgotten, reflects those political events. The ending has become much more popular.
The last real owner of Oti manor was Emanuel Hugo Eugen Ottokar von Aderkas (1859-1921), who inherited the mansion from his brother, Woldemar, who died as a bachelor. He spent his youth and adulthood in St. Petersburg, serving as a government official in many companies connected with social welfare. He studied law in Tartu and St. Petersburg universities and got his masters degree in law as well. He was the Russian Representative in Köln in 1885, where the Congress of Blind people was held and he also participated in many other major philantropic and pedagogical forums, including the World Exhibition held in Chicago in 1893. He was ranked as a private counselor. During the First World War he came back to Saaremaa and for a short time was a teacher of English in the Kuressaare Estonian and German High School. His daughter, Marie Elisabeth von Aderkas (1904-1946) worked during the period between the wars in the Kuressaare German High School as well. People remember her spending summers in Pöide together with her sister.
New times, new habits
According to the land law adopted by the Estonian Asutav Kogu in 1919, the manors were expropriated from their owners. The lands of Oti manor were divided into 32 units and were inhabited by local people. The Head of the Board of State-owned Lands came to live in the manor house.
In 1924 one visitor to the manor wrote that the surroundings are inconsolable, like all other parceled possessions, where are new people living. The park and yard are neglected, the garden has run wild.
After the Second World War, a machine tractor station was built in the center of Oti manor, which became the local Department of Agricultural Technology Production Association. For some time, a local library was in the mansion, also a kind-of movie theater was there and some rooms have been used as apartments. Just recently a shop was in one wing of the main building. The manor is now privately owned, and has become a cultural and educational center.
Oti, The oldest estate in Saaremaa!
The oldest manor in Saaremaa, Oti (Peudorf in German) was privatized already in the beginning of the 14th century. In these populated and fertile areas, the first fiefdoms were created. The first information concerning Oti manor dates from the year 1309. It seems that in Saaremaa this manor was in the possession of the Order of Teutonic Knights and, until the Jüriöö uprising, the economic unit of Pöide Order castle. The first owner was Johan Jkeskole van Poyde from 1436.
A very remarkable family in Old-Livonian history, Uexküll, did not have such an important role in Saaremaa as on the mainland but most probably Uexküll's ancestors participated in the conquest of Saaremaa in the 13th century.
Oti manor remained as Uexküll's only hereditary possession in Saaremaa until the beginning of the 18th century when the family died out. From this four centuries long period, the most famous is Otto von Uexküll (died in 1618) - who was the district magistrate and royal chief of Kuressaare fortress. He had served in Denmark as a cavalry captain. He received new confirmation about his old possessions from the Danish King, Christian IV, because the old documents proving his ownership had been destroyed when Maasilinn burned in 1575. During the second half of the Danish rule, the possessions of Oti manor had grown, so that the grandson of Otto von Uexküll, Johann (Hans) von Uexküll, received confirmation from the Swedish protector, Andreas Erichson Hästehufud, that he would get 18 hectars of cultivated fields surrounding the manor together with Veere and Välta villages. It is possible that this period was the golden age for the manor.
During the reduction period of manor houses, Oti manor was expropriated in 1689 but was rented to the widow of Alexander von Uexküll - Gertruta. Alexander was the second son of Johann von Uexküll. During Alexander von Uexküll's time, the manor got into debt, so that in 1707, when the proprietorship of Frommhold von Vietinghoff (son-in-law of Alexander) was restored, only a small manor with a few acres of cultivated fields was left. A few months after getting back the possessions, he died. His wooden coat of arms epitaph, originally in Pöide church, belongs to the Saaremaa Museum collection now.
Oti went to Aderkas as a heritage
During the Great Northern War in 1710 ,Oti manor was devastated by the Russian troops, all the buildings burned. The plague that followed, killed most of the peasants in the mansion and around it. The widow of Frommhold von Vietinghoff, Ursula Elisabeth (died 1742), managed to survive through this confusion and married in 1711 a major from Livonia, Fabian Gustav von Aderkas (1668-1725). Although they did not have any children, in 1725 Ursula Elisabeth left her manor to his stepson, Gotthard Wilhelm von Aderkas (1706-1769), establishing a strong dynasty of Aderkas? in that manor and in Saaremaa. There have been many well-known military officers and government officials in the Aderkas family.
In the first half of the 18th century the Aderkas family was able to increase the possessions of Oti manor to over 10 acres of cultivated fields. The son of Gotthard Wilhelm von Aderkas, also Gotthard Wilhelm von Aderkas, (1741-1813) established a family chapel at Pöide cemetery. The wonderful architecture of this classic style building is integrated with sculptures of the Aderkas coat of arms on the pediment. There are two Dorian pillars at the entrance. Between them and below rounded windows were sculptural niches, which contained two statues "Person with sand-glass" and "Peter" (now located in the Saaremaa museum). In 1898 the chapel was restored.
Gotthard Emmanuel von Aderkas (1773-1861), one of the 14 children of Gotthard Wilhelm, studied in Göttingen and achieved a high diplomatic position in the Russian czar's realm. He spent a long time working for the St. Petersburg school government, in social welfare and was the president of the Imperial Philantropy Association. He spent the last two years of his life in Saaremaa. His sister Augusta Christina was married to Johann Wilhelm Ludvig von Luce, one of the most prominent cultural figures in Saaremaa.
Karl Wilhelm Ottokar gave the Manor a new main building
Provincial judge and cavalry captain, Berend Woldemar von Aderkas (1777-1836) was the father of Karl Wilhelm Ottokar von Aderkas who built the main building of the manor in the way we see it preserved today. In his youth he was in the Russian czars army, where he was the lieutenant of the bodyguard, colonel of the Household guards and the Real Estate Counselor. From 1864 till 1865 he was the marshal of the knighthood. The most extensive construction work on Oti manor are connected with his name. From his first name, Ottokar, comes Oti, the name used for about 150 years for the manor.
The oldest part, resting on the arched cellar, is built in the first half of the 18th century after the Great Northern War. Later the building was widened with the balconies resting on thin pillars from both sides. The present look of the main building is a little eclectic but representative and exemplifies the historic late-classicism style. It got that look in the middle of last century. The manor is ornamented with rich ashlar decoration - corners from dolomite, edges of the eaves, the cartouches of the windows decorated with rosettes. The main entrance has the coat of arms of the Aderkas family with the date, 1850. Today, only the exterior frame has been preserved because reconstruction and decay have changed the interior of the building very much.
The Song of the Aderkas
If Karl Wilhelm Ottokar von Aderkas immortalized himself as the builder of the manor, then his older son, district magistrate Woldemar Alexander Emanuel von Aderkas (1849-1908), was introduced to music by a famous composer in Pöide, Konstantin Tuttav, and he remained interested in music, so much so that the islanders know even today to whom Oti manor belonged. "Aaderkassi" or "Otimöisa song" is composed after punitive troops came to Saaremaa in 1905. Oti manor was not in the center of the resistance, although some arson happened there as well. Local peasants were angry at the neighboring Uuemöisa owner, von Nolcken. The introduction of the song, today almost forgotten, reflects those political events. The ending has become much more popular.
The last real owner of Oti manor was Emanuel Hugo Eugen Ottokar von Aderkas (1859-1921), who inherited the mansion from his brother, Woldemar, who died as a bachelor. He spent his youth and adulthood in St. Petersburg, serving as a government official in many companies connected with social welfare. He studied law in Tartu and St. Petersburg universities and got his masters degree in law as well. He was the Russian Representative in Köln in 1885, where the Congress of Blind people was held and he also participated in many other major philantropic and pedagogical forums, including the World Exhibition held in Chicago in 1893. He was ranked as a private counselor. During the First World War he came back to Saaremaa and for a short time was a teacher of English in the Kuressaare Estonian and German High School. His daughter, Marie Elisabeth von Aderkas (1904-1946) worked during the period between the wars in the Kuressaare German High School as well. People remember her spending summers in Pöide together with her sister.
New times, new habits
According to the land law adopted by the Estonian Asutav Kogu in 1919, the manors were expropriated from their owners. The lands of Oti manor were divided into 32 units and were inhabited by local people. The Head of the Board of State-owned Lands came to live in the manor house.
In 1924 one visitor to the manor wrote that the surroundings are inconsolable, like all other parceled possessions, where are new people living. The park and yard are neglected, the garden has run wild.
After the Second World War, a machine tractor station was built in the center of Oti manor, which became the local Department of Agricultural Technology Production Association. For some time, a local library was in the mansion, also a kind-of movie theater was there and some rooms have been used as apartments. Just recently a shop was in one wing of the main building. The manor is now privately owned, and has become a cultural and educational center.