Keturiasdešimt Totorių (literally: ''Forty Tatars'', , ''Kyryk Tatar'') is a village in

Vilnius District Municipality Vilnius District Municipality () is one of the 60 municipalities in Lithuania. It surrounds the capital city of Vilnius on three sides. The municipality is also bordered by Trakai District Municipality, Trakai district and Elektr ...

, Pagiriai Eldership,

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

. According to the 2011 census, it had population of 451. There is a

wooden mosque The Wooden Mosque () is a mosque situated south-east of the city of Nishapur, Iran. This mosque is built completely of wood. Features Its construction, completed in two years, utilized 40 tons of wood. Gallery File:Wooden Village, Nishap ...

, built in 1815, three historic Tatar cemeteries and Tatar community center in the village.

History

Keturiasdešimt Totorių is one of the oldest

Lithuanian Tatars The Lipka Tatars are a Turkic ethnic group and minority in Poland, Lithuania, and Belarus who originally settled in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania at the beginning of the 14th century. The first Tatar settlers tried to preserve their Pagan tradi ...

settlements in the

Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a sovereign state in northeastern Europe that existed from the 13th century, succeeding the Kingdom of Lithuania, to the late 18th century, when the territory was suppressed during the 1795 Partitions of Poland, ...

. After a successful military campaign to

Crimean Peninsula Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrai ...

in 1397,

Vytautas Vytautas the Great (; 27 October 1430) was a ruler of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. He was also the prince of Grodno (1370–1382), prince of Lutsk (1387–1389), and the postulated king of the Hussites. In modern Lithuania, Vytautas is revere ...

brought the first

Tatar Tatar may refer to: Peoples * Tatars, an umbrella term for different Turkic ethnic groups bearing the name "Tatar" * Volga Tatars, a people from the Volga-Ural region of western Russia * Crimean Tatars, a people from the Crimea peninsula by the B ...

prisoners of war to

Trakai Trakai (; see Trakai#Names and etymology, names section for alternative and historic names) is a city and lake resort in Lithuania. It lies west of Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania or just from the administrative limits of the Lithuanian capi ...

and various places in the

Duchy of Trakai Duchy of Trakai () was a subdivision of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania during the 14th and early 15th centuries. The Duke of Trakai was an important position held either by the Grand Duke of Lithuania himself or his second-in-command. History After ...

, including localities near

Vokė The Vokė is a river in southeast Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia t ...

river just south of

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

. The first mosque in this village was mentioned for the first time in 1558. It was burnt down during

Napoleonic wars {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Napoleonic Wars , partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg , caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...

. There were 42 Tatar families in the village in 1630. As of 2016, there are around 120

Tatars Tatars ( )Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary are a group of Turkic peoples across Eas ...

living in this village. The rest of the population are

Lithuanians Lithuanians () are a Balts, Baltic ethnic group. They are native to Lithuania, where they number around 2,378,118 people. Another two million make up the Lithuanian diaspora, largely found in countries such as the Lithuanian Americans, United Sta ...

Poles Pole or poles may refer to: People *Poles (people), another term for Polish people, from the country of Poland * Pole (surname), including a list of people with the name * Pole (musician) (Stefan Betke, born 1967), German electronic music artist ...

Russians Russians ( ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Eastern Europe. Their mother tongue is Russian language, Russian, the most spoken Slavic languages, Slavic language. The majority of Russians adhere to Eastern Orthodox Church ...

and others. Around a third of the population are Muslim. The other localities in

Vilnius district municipality Vilnius District Municipality () is one of the 60 municipalities in Lithuania. It surrounds the capital city of Vilnius on three sides. The municipality is also bordered by Trakai District Municipality, Trakai district and Elektr ...

with sizeable

presence are

Nemėžis Nemėžis () is a village in the Vilnius district municipality, Lithuania, it is located only about east of Vilnius. It is located south-east of Vilnius along a railway. History It is believed that there was a castle in Nemėžis during the re ...

and Pagiriai. In 2019, a book ''The Village of Forty Tatars – Between History and the Present'' was published.

Name meaning

According to a legend, which explains the name of this village,

granted Tatars the privilege of keeping their religion and customs, including the customary polygamy. One Tatar man had four wives and every wife gave birth to ten sons, thus the name of the village – "Forty Tatars".Vilniaus rajonas Vilnijos Vartai: Pagirių seniūnija, Keturiasdešimt Totorių
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Keturiasdesimt Totoriu Villages in Vilnius County Vilnius District Municipality