Paberžė (

Lithuanian Lithuanian may refer to: * Lithuanians * Lithuanian language * The country of Lithuania * Grand Duchy of Lithuania * Culture of Lithuania * Lithuanian cuisine * Lithuanian Jews as often called "Lithuanians" (''Lita'im'' or ''Litvaks'') by other Jew ...

for ''near the birch (forest)'') is a village in Vilnius District Municipality,

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), 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. Lithuania ...

, it is located only about north of Vilnius city municipality. 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. 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 Sigismund I the Old ( pl, Zygmunt I Stary, lt, Žygimantas II Senasis; 1 January 1467 – 1 April 1548) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1506 until his death in 1548. Sigismund I was a member of the Jagiellonian dynasty, the ...

granted the privilege of establishing a tavern 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 trees''). In 1613, the village was marked on a famous map of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania — ''Magni Ducatus Lithuaniae, et Regionum Adiacentium exacta Descriptio'' printed in Amsterdam and financed by the Lithuanian magnate Mikołaj Krzysztof "the Orphan" Radziwiłł. 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 The January Uprising ( pl, powstanie styczniowe; lt, 1863 metų sukilimas; ua, Січневе повстання; russian: Польское восстание; ) was an insurrection principally in Russia's Kingdom of Poland that was aimed at ...

, it was transferred to the Eastern Orthodox Church. A local Catholic priest converted to Eastern Orthodoxy and encouraged his parishioners to do the same. Before World War I, the village was famous for its

rodeo Rodeo () is a competitive equestrian sport that arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain and Mexico, expanding throughout the Americas and to other nations. It was originally based on the skills required of the working va ...

with

bulls Bulls may refer to: *The plural of bull, an adult male bovine *Bulls, New Zealand, a small town in the Rangitikei District Sports *Bucking bull, used in the sport of bull riding *Bulls (rugby union), a South African rugby union franchise operated ...

(the only such place in

). 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 church with well visible modernist features was built (finished in 1932). In 2013, coat of arms 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 Lithuanians ( lt, lietuviai) are a Baltic ethnic group. They are native to Lithuania, where they number around 2,378,118 people. Another million or two make up the Lithuanian diaspora, largely found in countries such as the United States, Uni ...

– 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 Ce ...

– 60,6%, Russians – 13,2% and others – 5,8%. Religious composition is as diverse:

Catholics The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Old Believers Old Believers or Old Ritualists, ''starovery'' or ''staroobryadtsy'' are Eastern Orthodox Christians who maintain the liturgical and ritual practices of the Russian Orthodox Church as they were before the reforms of Patriarch Nikon of Moscow bet ...

and Eastern Orthodox. 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

, 363 or 11,4% were Russians, 90 or 2,8% were

Belarusians , native_name_lang = be , pop = 9.5–10 million , image = , caption = , popplace = 7.99 million , region1 = , pop1 = 600,000–768,000 , region2 = , pop2 ...

, 10 Ukrainians and 84 of other ethnicity or refused to answer.

References

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