Pakruojis () is a city in

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 situated on the Kruoja River, which has a dam above the city. Forty three buildings of the manor, mentioned in 1531 still survive.

History

Pakruojis and it neighbourhood are within the boundaries of the inhabited area of the Semigallian tribe. For a long time it was thought that the town was founded in 1585, when the town and Pakruojis manor were mentioned in land ownership records. This date has entered several encyclopedias. However, historian Algimantas Miškinis discovered that Pakruojis was first mentioned in 1531. On July 10, 1613 the first church of Pakruojis had inaugural service in it new building.

Sigismund III Vasa Sigismund III Vasa ( pl, Zygmunt III Waza, lt, Žygimantas Vaza; 20 June 1566 – 30 April 1632 N.S.) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1587 to 1632 and, as Sigismund, King of Sweden and Grand Duke of Finland from 1592 to ...

granted rights for two annual fairs. Landowners von Ropa, who owned Pakruojis Manor from the beginning of 19th century, had a great influence on the development of the city. In 1801 the oldest wooden synagogue of Pakruojis in Lithuania was built. In July and August, 1941, German soldiers with the help of local white armbanders massacred a total of 400 Jews from Pakruojis district in the nearby Morkakalnis forest. Pakruojis

wooden synagogue Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the Plant stem, stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite material, composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and emb ...

survived

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. It is the largest and the oldest of the wooden synagogues that survives in Lithuania, but had been in deteriorating condition for a long time. On May 3, 2009 the synagogue suffered severe damage in a possible arson fire,; it underwent restoration 2014–2016 and was reopened in May 2017. In 1950 Pakruojis was granted city rights. In 1982 a railway from

Radviliškis Radviliškis () (german: Radwilischken; pl, Radziwiliszki; yi, ראדווילישאָק, ''Radvilishok'') is a town in the Radviliškis district municipality, Šiauliai County, Lithuania. Radviliškis has been the administrative center of th ...

was upgraded and narrow railway replaced with wide railway. In 1993 the coat of arms of Pakruojis was approved.

International relations

Twin towns — sister cities

Pakruojis is twinned with: *

Mariestad Mariestad () is a locality and the seat of Mariestad Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had 16,611 inhabitants in 2019. Until 1997 it was the capital of the former Skaraborg County and an episcopal see in the Church of Sweden bet ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

Bauska Bauska () is a town in Bauska Municipality, in the Zemgale region of southern Latvia. Bauska is located from the Latvian capital Riga, 62 km (38.5 mi) from Jelgava and from the Lithuanian border on the busy European route E67. The to ...

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 ...

People

Eugen von Keyserling Eugen von Keyserling (22 March 1833 in Pockroy, Lithuania – 4 April 1889 in Dzierżoniów, Silesia) was a Baltic-German arachnologist Arachnology is the scientific study of arachnids, which comprise spiders and related invertebrates such as ...

(1833-1889), German-Baltic arachnologist *

Vilma Bardauskienė Vilhelmina "Vilma" Bardauskienė (born 15 June 1953) is a former long jumper from Lithuania, who represented the Soviet Union in the late 1970s and early 1980s. She twice set the women's world record in the long jump, and won the European title in 1 ...

(born 1953), long jumper

References

External links

Pakruojis manor
{{Authority control Cities in Šiauliai County Cities in Lithuania Municipalities administrative centres of Lithuania Ponevezhsky Uyezd Holocaust locations in Lithuania Pakruojis District Municipality