Rubno is now a small village in Lithuania. Just over 100 people live here. All that remains of the former Obst family manor is an overgrown manor park with a concrete basin where a fountain once stood. The statue of Our Lady of Rubno, commissioned by Jan Konrad Obst, also remains in the cemetery.

A brief biography of Jan Konrad Obst
Jan Konrad Obst (1876–1954) was an opera singer, journalist, publisher, populariser of the history of the Vilnius region, and an officer in the Polish Army. He was born in Leipzig, Germany. He graduated from the local conservatoire (making his opera debut in Leipzig in 1895) and studied history and political economy at the University of Leipzig. In 1902, he moved to St Petersburg, where he worked on the editorial staff of the conservative weekly *Kraj*. After the magazine ceased publication, in 1910 he began publishing *Kwartalnik Litewski* (published in Vilnius under the title *Litwa i Ruś*).

Jan Konrad Obst’s life’s work was the private Adam Mickiewicz Museum, founded in 1911 in Vilnius, in Bernardyński Lane. In 1911, he purchased the flat which the poet had rented in 1822 and where *Grażyna* was written. It was here that Mickiewicz also worked on the first volume of *Ballads and Romances* and the second and fourth parts of *Dziady*. In the 1930s, Obst donated the flat and the museum’s collection to Vilnius University. He himself, along with his wife and mother, moved to the Rubno estate, situated some 40 km north-east of Vilnius on the road leading from Bujwidz to Ławaryszek, not far from the present-day Lithuanian–Belarusian border. Previously, the Rubno estate had been owned by Jan Budyński, from whom the Obst family purchased it in 1933 for 25,000 zlotys.

The Obst family’s estate in Rubno in memoirs
The following is recorded about Rubno itself and its surroundings in Volume IX of the ‘Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland and Other Slavic Countries’ (1888): “A small town, village and manor, in Vilnius County, in the 4th district, Polish, Bystrzyca commune, rural district, Daukszów estate, 16 versts from the commune and 31 versts from Vilnius; the farmstead has 1 house and 14 Catholic inhabitants, whilst the village has 15 houses and 83 inhabitants of the same faith; according to the 1884 census, the town has 14 souls and the village 33 souls. There is a Catholic chapel here belonging to the parish of Bujwidze. The rural district comprises the town of Rubno and the villages of Podworzyszki, Rubno, Nowosiółki, Podjeziorki, Berezówka (Brzozówka), Dębina, Dziekaniszki, Łabińce and the hamlets of Munduciszki, Szałkowszczyzna, Popalcie, Czyrele, Grygiszki, Mościszcze I and II, Przybliżyszki, Czyrwiszki, Wiżyszki, Karoliszki, Podjeziorki (Podozierki), totalling 119 souls. 157 enfranchised peasants and 36 manor servants”.

The manor house purchased by the Obst family was situated half a kilometre from the village of Rubno. The economist Czesław Noniewicz recalled the appearance of the building from his childhood: “The manor house was wooden, with a shingle roof. I used to see it whilst attending primary school, as the school was also housed there at the time. There were tiled stoves with decorative doors, on which a Greek quadriga was depicted.”

The daughter of the co-owner (the last one before Obst), Eugenia Stasiuk (née Piętrowa), recalled: “‘The house in Rubno is a real mystery. Through the open porch, one entered a huge hall. To the left, a door led to the drawing room: a parquet floor, four windows, and an oak door. From there, one could go to the guest room, the veranda and the library. From the library, one entered the dining room; there was a second entrance from the hall. At the end of the corridor was a wood-panelled toilet, complete with a toilet seat. The kitchen, with a Russian oven for baking country bread, was situated downstairs, in a cellar room. Next to it was a larder. A beautiful estate. Trees, flowers and a pond everywhere.’ Around the house, in addition to fruit trees (apple and cherry), there were rowan and chestnut trees. In front of the veranda were flower beds. As well as the manor house, there were other farm buildings: a granary, a barn, a cattle shed (cowshed), a brick cellar, servants’ quarters, and a country bathhouse. Previously, under the Roubs, there had been a horse stud here. The estate comprised three orchards, fields, meadows, a patch of woodland and a pond. The farm kept cows, horses, pigs and poultry. The farmstead had three avenues: one of cherry trees, one of lime trees and one of birch trees. According to local lore, a statue of the Virgin Mary (standing over a metre tall on a plinth), ‘renowned for its miracles’, was situated behind the Obst family’s property, before the entrance to the courtyard of the Rubno estate. The estate also included a chapel dedicated to St Matthew.”

In turn, the historian Liliana Narkowicz, in her excellent biography of Jan Konrad Obst, cites other details relating to the manor house and also mentions the new owner’s installation of the statue of Our Lady of Rubno in 1935: “[The manor house] was wooden and spacious. It had eight rooms, including a drawing room, a library, a dining room and a guest room. During the Obsts’ time here, the walls of the spacious drawing room were adorned with decorative plates. There were parquet floors and oak doors throughout. The furniture was stylish and carved. There was no shortage of silver and porcelain. The house contained several clocks, a radio and a piano. The vast number of books and newspapers was the most impressive feature. Obst’s study was adorned with an inscription on the wall: ‘Those who visit this house and wish me well, may they have the same for themselves.’

Rubno today
In the spring of 1944, the area around Rubno served as the base and operational headquarters for the 1st Vilnius Brigade of the Home Army, commanded by Lieutenant Czesław Grombczewski, codenamed ‘Jurand’. One of the Home Army’s photographers, Wacław Kapusto, alias ‘Orlik’, captured the volunteers taking their oath before the statue of Our Lady of Rubno. In the summer and autumn of 1944, the Obstów manor house was plundered by the Bolsheviks, and the owner was thrown out onto the street. He died in obscurity and abject poverty near Dziekaniszki ten years after the ‘liberation’ of the Vilnius region by the Red Army.

During the Soviet occupation, the manor house and estate were completely destroyed. Only the statue of the Virgin Mary survived, though the Bolsheviks had cut off its hands.

Today, in the small cemetery in Rubna (Lithuanian: Kirtimai), stands the restored statue of Our Lady of Rubna, sheltered by a wooden canopy. One can also find the graves of the estate’s owner, his mother and wife, as well as those of Ryszard Rouba, ‘a nobleman of the Drogomir coat of arms’, which were restored in 2008 thanks to the efforts of the Polish community.