LTTyrimų tikslas ir uždaviniai: ištirti ir įvertinti Viešvilės parapijos dvarų ūkinės ir socialinės raidos bruožus tiriamuoju laikotarpiu. Remiantis istoriniais duomenimis, kartografine ir ikonografine medžiaga bei natūros tyrimais, atlikti toje teritorijoje buvusių dvarų būklės bei jų kitimo analizę, nustatyti tuo laikotarpiu vykusių pokyčių tendencijas, apibūdinti dvarų ir jų sodybų likimą po 1944 m. Tyrimų metodai: kartografinių, ikonografinių ir tekstinių šaltinių, archyvinių dokumentų analizė, aprašomasis analitinis. Papildomi specifiniai tyrimo metodai: buvusių dvarų pėdsakų natūrinė analizė, jų fotofiksacija, įvairių laikotarpių ir pobūdžio duomenų gretinimas, nustatant atskirų dvarų elementų buvusį pobūdį. Raktiniai žodžiai: Mažoji Lietuva, dvarai, dvarų sodybos, žemės ūkis. [Iš leidinio]
ENThe manors in this parish have not been described systematically yet. The emigrant Hans Erhardt Knobloch and others have published some data about them in Germany. The author was examining the remainders of the manors on site and was collecting information about their past in German archives. In the past there were more than 45 manors there, but after 1944 their farms and majority of the homesteads had been destroyed. The specific natural and historical conditions led to creation of two major manors from the 16th century: Kasikėnai (Kassigkehmen) and Viešvilė (Wischwill). Later many small manors of various characters were established. Much income was received from productive piers of the Nemunas riverbank, but the fertile agricultural lands were lacking. In the 19th century, people were keeping thousands of sheep; later the dairy economy was developed. The manors had their local industry: the water power-stations used to be built by the swift Viešvilė stream and elsewhere, the manors used to have their own dairies, smithies, mills, copper and iron forgers, oil-mills and paper factories. After the Prussian reforms of 1806, the financial situation of the manors was not stable, part of them were liquidated, some of them were given to other owners. The surrounding manors were not very rich. Viešvilė and Kasikėnai possessed correspondingly the area of land up to 1800 and 1000 ha. Many small manors had only several tens hectares of land. The article provides historical statistical data about the former economy of the manors and their income. [From the publication p. 2730]