Paberžė ( Lithuanian for ''near the birch (forest)'') is a village in

Vilnius District Municipality Vilnius District Municipality ( lt, Vilniaus rajono savivaldybė) is one of 60 municipalities in Lithuania. It surrounds the capital city of Vilnius on 3 sides, while the rest borders the Trakai District Municipality. At the 2011 Census, Poles a ...

, Lithuania, it is located only about north of

Vilnius city municipality Vilnius ( , ; see also #Etymology and other names, other names) is the capital and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the munic ...

. According to the 2011 census, it had population of 919.

History

Magni Ducatus Lithuaniae, et Regionum Adiacentium exacta Descriptio

The territory of Paberžė was inhabited from the

early Middle Ages The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th or early 6th century to the 10th century. They marked the start of the Mi ...

. In the vicinity of the village, there are archaeological sites Pilata and Pilaškučiai. Paberžė itself is an old settlement, first mentioned in historical records in 1484 when the first church was built. In 1503, Paberžė parish was established. In 1517, Grand Duke Sigismund I the Old granted the privilege of establishing a

tavern A tavern is a place of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and be served food such as different types of roast meats and cheese, and (mostly historically) where travelers would receive lodging. An inn is a tavern t ...

in Paberžė, profit of this establishment was used to support the local church. In the 16th century, the village was known as Beržai (Lithuanian for ''

birch A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech- oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains ...

trees''). In 1613, the village was marked on a famous map of the

Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state that existed from the 13th century to 1795, when the territory was partitioned among the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Habsburg Empire of Austria. The state was founded by Lit ...

— ''Magni Ducatus Lithuaniae, et Regionum Adiacentium exacta Descriptio'' printed in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

and financed by the Lithuanian magnate

Mikołaj Krzysztof "the Orphan" Radziwiłł Prince Mikołaj Krzysztof Radziwiłł ( lt, Mikalojus Kristupas Radvila Našlaitėlis) (2 Augustus 1549 – 28 February 1616) and nicknamed "the Orphan" ( pl, Sierotka, lt, Našlaitėlis), was a Polish–Lithuanian nobleman ( szlachcic), ...

. In the second half of the 17th century, Catholic monks lived in Paberžė, there was a Catholic church and a parish school. In 1676, a new wooden church was built, which was renewed in 1759 and rebuilt in 1793. In 1860, the wooden Catholic church was rebuilt again. In 1866, after the January Uprising, it was transferred to the

Eastern Orthodox Church The Eastern Orthodox Church, also called the Orthodox Church, is the second-largest Christian church, with approximately 220 million baptized members. It operates as a communion of autocephalous churches, each governed by its bishops vi ...

. A local Catholic priest converted to Eastern Orthodoxy and encouraged his parishioners to do the same. Before

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, the village was famous for its rodeo with bulls (the only such place in Lithuania). During the

interwar In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the First World War to the beginning of the Second World War. The interwar period was relativel ...

period,

Neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

church with well visible

modernist Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

features was built (finished in 1932). In 2013,

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...

of Paberžė were created with the birch tree leaves depicted.

Demography

According to the census of 2011, there were 919 inhabitants in Paberžė village and 3,670 in Paberžė eldership, which covers an area of and includes 127 villages. The ethnographic composition of the eldership is very diverse: Lithuanians – 20,4%,

Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in C ...

– 60,6%,

Russians , native_name_lang = ru , image = , caption = , population = , popplace = 118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 '' Winkler Prins'' estimate) , region1 = , pop1 ...

– 13,2% and others – 5,8%. Religious composition is as diverse: Catholics, Old Believers and

Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism. Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or " canonical ...

. According to the census of 2021, the composition was the following: out of 3175 inhabitants, 1882 or 59,2% were

, 748 or 23,6% were Lithuanians, 363 or 11,4% were

Russians , native_name_lang = ru , image = , caption = , population = , popplace = 118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 '' Winkler Prins'' estimate) , region1 = , pop1 ...

, 90 or 2,8% were Belarusians, 10

Ukrainians Ukrainians ( uk, Українці, Ukraintsi, ) are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. They are the seventh-largest nation in Europe. The native language of the Ukrainians is Ukrainian. The majority of Ukrainians are Eastern Ort ...

and 84 of other ethnicity or refused to answer.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paberze Villages in Vilnius County Vilnius District Municipality