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Vends
The Vends ( lat, wendi, lv, vendi, et, võndlased, võnnulased, vendid) were a Balto-Finnic people that lived between the 12th to 16th centuries in the area around the town of Wenden (now Cēsis) in present-day north-central Latvia. According to Livonian Chronicle of Henry prior to their arrival in the area of Wenden in the 12th century, the Vends were settled in Ventava county ( la, Wynda) by the Venta River near the present city of Ventspils in western Latvia. Their proximity to more numerous Finnic and Baltic tribes inclined the Vends to ally with the German crusaders, who began building a stone castle near the older Vendian wooden fortress in 1207. The castle of Wenden later became the residence of the Master of the Livonian Order. The last known record of the Vends' existence as a distinct entity dates from the sixteenth century. Origin Henry of Latvia made the first surviving mention of the Vends as they were chased away from Courland and Christianized by Germans ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Livonian Crusade
The Livonian crusade refers to the various military Christianisation campaigns in medieval Livonia – in what is now Latvia and Estonia – during the Papal -sanctioned Northern Crusades in the 12–13th century. The Livonian crusade was conducted mostly by the Holy Roman Empire and the Kingdom of Denmark. It ended with the creation of Terra Mariana and the Danish duchy of Estonia. The lands on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea were one of the last parts of Europe to be Christianised. On 2 February 1207, in the territories conquered, an ecclesiastical state called ''Terra Mariana'' was established as a principality of the Holy Roman Empire, and proclaimed by Pope Innocent III in 1215 as a subject of the Holy See. After the success of the crusade, the Teutonic- and Danish- occupied territory was divided into six feudal principalities by William of Modena. Wars against Livs and Latgalians (1198–1209) By the time German traders began to arrive in the second half of the 12 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wends
Wends ( ang, Winedas ; non, Vindar; german: Wenden , ; da, vendere; sv, vender; pl, Wendowie, cz, Wendové) is a historical name for Slavs living near Germanic settlement areas. It refers not to a homogeneous people, but to various peoples, tribes or groups depending on where and when it was used. In the modern day, communities identifying as Wendish exist in Slovenia, Austria, Lusatia, Texas, and Australia. In German-speaking Europe during the Middle Ages, the term "Wends" was interpreted as synonymous with "Slavs" and sporadically used in literature to refer to West Slavs and South Slavs living within the Holy Roman Empire. The name has possibly survived in Finnic languages ( , et, Vene , krl, Veneä), denoting modern Russia. People termed "Wends" in the course of history According to one theory, Germanic peoples first applied this name to the ancient Veneti, and then after the Migration Period they transferred it to their new neighbours, the early Slavs. For th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cēsis
Cēsis (), (german: Wenden, liv, Venden, et, Võnnu, pl, Kieś) is a town in Latvia located in the northern part of the Central Vidzeme Upland. Cēsis is on the Gauja River valley, and is built on a series of ridges above the river overlooking the woods below. Cēsis was one of the candidate cities for the title of European Capital of Culture 2014 ( Riga was the Latvian city that won the title). Castle The oldest settlement in Cēsis is the hillfort on Riekstu hill, a fortified wooden castle built by a tribe known as the Vends. The mound with its partly preserved fortification system can still be seen in the Castle Park. This settlement was located near major trade routes from west to east and dominated the regional countryside. German crusaders known as the Livonian Brothers of the Sword began construction of a castle ''Wenden'' near the hill fort in 1209. When the castle was enlarged and fortified, it served as the residence for the Order's Master. In 1577, duri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vistula Veneti
The Vistula Veneti (also called Baltic Veneti) were an Indo-European people that inhabited the region of central Europe east of the Vistula River and the areas around the Bay of Gdańsk. The name first appeared in the 1st century AD in the writings of ancient Romans who differentiated a group of peoples whose manner and language differed from that of the Germanic and Sarmatian tribes. In the 6th century AD, Byzantine sources described the Veneti as the ancestors of the Slavs,Alexander M. Schenker, ''The Dawn of Slavic: An Introduction to Slavic Philology'' (1995), 1.4., including a reference to J. Ochmański, Ochmański, ''Historia Litwy'', 2nd ed. (Wrocław, 1982) who during the second phase of the Migration Period moved south across the northern frontier of the Byzantine Empire. Roman historical sources Pliny the Elder places the Veneti along the Baltic coast. He calls them the Sarmatian Venedi (Latin: ''Sarmatae Venedi''). Thereafter, the 2nd century Greco-Roman geograph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Slavic Tribes
This is a list of Slavic peoples and Slavic tribes reported in Late Antiquity and in the Middle Ages, that is, before the year AD 1500. Ancestors *Proto-Indo-Europeans (Proto-Indo-European speakers) ** Proto-Balto-Slavs (common ancestors of Balts and Slavs) (Proto-Balto-Slavic speakers) ***Proto-Slavs (Proto-Slavic speakers) Antiquity * Veneti / Sporoi (common ancestors of all Slavs, Proto-Slavs, and the West Slavs with the same name). It is hypothesized that Proto-Slavs had their origin in western Ukraine - west of the Dnieper, east of the Vistula, south of the Pripyat Marshes and north of the Carpathian Mountains and the Dniester, to the northwest of the Pontic Eurasian Steppes and south of the Baltic peoples, especially West Baltic peoples, with whom they have common ancestors, the Balto-Slavs. Proto-Slavs are mainly associated with Zarubintsy culture that had possible links to the ancient peoples of the Vistula basin (Przeworsk culture). Proto and Early Slavs, wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Venta River
The Venta (Latvian pronunciation , Lithuanian , , , Livonian ''Vǟnta joug'') is a river in north-western Lithuania and western Latvia. Its source is near Kuršėnai in the Lithuanian Šiauliai County. It flows into the Baltic Sea at Ventspils in Latvia. On the territory of Lithuania along the Venta are cities Užventis, Kuršėnai, Venta, Viekšniai and Mažeikiai. In Latvia, the cities of Kuldīga, Piltene and Ventspils are located on the Venta river. Venta has the widest waterfall in Europe — Venta Rapid. Basin system River has only one tributary longer than 100 km, the Abava. Other major tributaries include the Virvyčia (99.7 km) and the Varduva (96 km), which flows into the Venta at the Latvia–Lithuania border. Smaller tributaries include the Avižlys, which runs for 20 kilometers and flows into the Venta River and the 30 kilometre Uogys which joins the Venta less than 1 km upstream of the Avižlys at Akmenė district municipality, Šiaulia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Votians
Votians, also referred to as Votes, Vots and Vods ( vot, Vađđalaizõd, et, vadjalased) are a Finnic ethnic group native to historical Ingria, the part of modern-day northwestern Russia that is roughly southwest of Saint Petersburg and east of the Estonian border-town of Narva. The Finnic Votic language spoken by Votians is close to extinction. The language is still spoken in three villages of historical Votia and by an unknown number of speakers in the countryside. The villages are '' Jõgõperä'' (Krakolye), ''Liivcülä'' (Peski), and ''Luuditsa'' (Luzhitsy).Eesti Rahva Muuseum: Vadjalased Votians were one of the founding people of . History ) , l ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ethnic Groups In Latvia
This article is about the demographic features of the population of the historical territory of Latvia, including population density, ethnic background, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population. History Latvia was settled by the Baltic tribes some three millennia ago. The territories along the eastern Baltic first came under foreign domination at the beginning of the 13th century, with the formal establishment of Riga in 1201 under the German Teutonic Knights. Latvia, in whole or in parts, remained under foreign rule for the next eight centuries, finding itself at the cross-roads of all the regional superpowers of their day, including Denmark (the Danes held on lands around the Gulf of Riga), Sweden, and Russia, with southern (Courland) Latvia being at one time a vassal to Poland-Lithuania as well as Latgale falling directly under Poland-Lithuania rule. Through all this time, Latvia remained largely ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Historical Ethnic Groups Of Europe
Europeans are the focus of European ethnology, the field of anthropology related to the various ethnic groups that reside in the states of Europe. Groups may be defined by common genetic ancestry, common language, or both. Pan and Pfeil (2004) count 87 distinct "''peoples of Europe''", of which 33 form the majority population in at least one sovereign state, while the remaining 54 constitute ethnic minorities. The total number of national minority populations in Europe is estimated at 105 million people, or 14% of 770 million Europeans.Christoph Pan, Beate Sibylle Pfeil (2002), Minderheitenrechte in Europa. Handbuch der europäischen Volksgruppen', Braumüller, (Google Books, snippet view). Als2006 reprint by Springer(Amazon, no preview) . The Russians are the most populous among Europeans, with a population of roughly 120 million. There are no universally accepted and precise definitions of the terms " ethnic group" and "nationality". In the context of European ethnography in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Latvia
Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the Baltic states; and is bordered by Estonia to the north, Lithuania to the south, Russia to the east, Belarus to the southeast, and shares a maritime border with Sweden to the west. Latvia covers an area of , with a population of 1.9 million. The country has a temperate seasonal climate. Its capital and largest city is Riga. Latvians belong to the ethno-linguistic group of the Balts; and speak Latvian, one of the only two surviving Baltic languages. Russians are the most prominent minority in the country, at almost a quarter of the population. After centuries of Teutonic, Swedish, Polish-Lithuanian and Russian rule, which was mainly executed by the local Baltic German aristocracy, the independent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Riga
Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Baltic Sea. Riga's territory covers and lies above sea level, on a flat and sandy plain. Riga was founded in 1201 and is a former Hanseatic League member. Riga's historical centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, noted for its Art Nouveau/Jugendstil architecture and 19th century wooden architecture. Riga was the European Capital of Culture in 2014, along with Umeå in Sweden. Riga hosted the 2006 NATO Summit, the Eurovision Song Contest 2003, the 2006 IIHF Men's World Ice Hockey Championships, 2013 World Women's Curling Championship and the 2021 IIHF World Championship. It is home to the European Union's office of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC). In 2017, it was named the European Region of Gastrono ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rhyme Chronicle Of Livonia
The ''Livonian Rhymed Chronicle'' (german: Livländische Reimchronik) is a chronicle written in Middle High German by an anonymous author. It covers the period 1180 – 1343 and contains a wealth of detail about Livonia — modern South Estonia and Latvia. The old Chronicle The ''Rhymed Chronicle'' was composed to be read to the crusading knights of the Livonian Order during their meals. Its primary function was to inspire the knights and legitimise the northern Crusades. As such, it is infused with elements of romance and exaggerated for the purpose of drama. However, this is debated by A. Murray. He suggests that during mealtimes the knights were read sections of the Bible or the word of God, so that they could 'receive spiritual as well as corporal nourishment'. There was little of this in the ''Chronicle''. There is also the fact that the ''Chronicle'' is written in high German, and the majority of the knights who were in Livonia at that time would have spoken low German. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
