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Kepaluškalnis
Kepaluškalins (also known as Pilės or Kaltinėnai Mound) is a mound located in Šilalė district, Lithuania, close to Kaltinėnai town, in Pilės village. It is thought to be founded in the beginning of 2nd millennium AD. The size of the mound and the dimensions of its defence fortifications show that during the wars with Crusaders there was one of the strongest castles in Žemaitija and the centre of Kaltinėnai land defence as well as administration on Kepaluškalnis. Remains of fortifications The mound was founded on the edge of a highland, on a point formed by two hollows. Its hillsides are precipitous, to 20m in height. A 45 x 50m size upper ground was surrounded by bulwarks which are flattened now. Spurs, stone projectiles and other finds have been found in this ground. The north side of the mound was fortified with even 5 bulwarks and moats, first 3 of which also encircled the eastern and western hillsides. There was also a moat in the southern hillside, and the bul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kaltinėnai
Kaltinėnai (Samogitian dialect, Samogitian: ''Kaltinienā'', ) is a small town in the west of Lithuania, located near Žemaičių highway in Šilalė district municipality, Tauragė County. Kaltinėnai has around 728 inhabitants (2011). The town is in a hollow, and it is rumoured that a large lake existed at the end of the Ice age where it now sits. Kaltinėnai is surrounded by famous mounds such as Skuburkalnis, Švedkalnis, Kepaluškalnis and Medvėgalis. There are also two rivers nearby, the Akmena and the Ižnė. Notable buildings include the church, an old wooden synagogue, a home for Old age, the elderly and the Rehabilitation Centre. History A stone axe discovered in the town suggests that the area was already inhabited by the Neolithic period. Historians believe that the town was originally part of a larger settlement, but later it split and Kaltinėnai became a separate region. Kaltinėnai was first mentioned in a German chronicle as ''terram Kalctene'' in 1371. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Šilalė
Šilalė (; Samogitian dialect, Samogitian: ''Šėlalė'', ) is a city in western Lithuania, Samogitia, Tauragė County. It is located north of Tauragė. The River Lokysta flows through the town and there is a pond in the centre of the town. History The town is part of the Samogitian Ethnography, ethnographic Regions of Lithuania, region of Lithuania and was first mentioned in the sixteenth century. Its name derives from the generic word sila ("Pinewood") and Samogitian suffix ''-alė.'' It was located in the Duchy of Samogitia in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania within the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. During World War II, the town was under Soviet occupation from 1940, and then under German occupation of Lithuania during World War II, German occupation from 1941 to 1944. In July 1941, 135 Jewish men from Šilalė were shot on a site in the Jewish cemetery. In September 1941, the Jewish women and children of Šilalė were shot in the Tūbinės forest. Around 1,300 Jews were ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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, Poland to the south, and the Russian exclave, semi-exclave of Kaliningrad Oblast to the southwest, with a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Sweden to the west. Lithuania covers an area of , with a population of 2.89 million. Its capital and largest city is Vilnius; other major cities include Kaunas, Klaipėda, Šiauliai and Panevėžys. Lithuanians who are the titular nation and form the majority of the country's population, belong to the ethnolinguistic group of Balts and speak Lithuanian language, Lithuanian. For millennia, the southeastern shores of the Baltic Sea were inhabited by various Balts, Baltic tribes. In the 1230s, Lithuanian lands were united for the first time by Mindaugas, who formed the Kingdom of Lithuania on 6 July ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2nd Millennium
File:2nd millennium montage.png, From top left, clockwise: in 1492, Christopher Columbus reaches the New World, opening the European colonization of the Americas; the American Revolution, one of the late 1700s Enlightenment-inspired Atlantic Revolutions; the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople; the Atomic Bomb from World War II; an alternate source of light, the light bulb; for the first time, a human being sets foot on the Moon in 1969 during the Apollo 11 Moon mission; airplanes enable widespread air travel; Napoleon Bonaparte, in the early 19th century, affects France and Europe with expansionism, modernization, and nationalism; Alexander Graham Bell's telephone; in 1348, the Black Death kills in just two years over 100 million people worldwide, and over half of Europe. (Background: An excerpt from the Gutenberg Bible, the first major book printed in the West using movable type, in the 1450s), 400px, thumb rect 3 3 253 191 European colonization of the Americas rect 259 5 4 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fortifications
A fortification (also called a fort, fortress, fastness, or stronghold) is a military construction designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ("strong") and ("to make"). From very early history to modern times, defensive walls have often been necessary for cities to survive in an ever-changing world of invasion and conquest. Some settlements in the Indus Valley Civilization were the first small cities to be fortified. In ancient Greece, large cyclopean stone walls fitted without mortar had been built in Mycenaean Greece, such as the ancient site of Mycenae. A Greek '' phrourion'' was a fortified collection of buildings used as a military garrison, and is the equivalent of the Roman castellum or fortress. These constructions mainly served the purpose of a watch tower, to guard certain roads, passes, and borders. Though smaller than a real fortress, they acted as a bor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crusaders
The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding territories from Muslim rule. Beginning with the First Crusade, which culminated in the capture of Jerusalem in 1099, these expeditions spanned centuries and became a central aspect of European political, religious, and military history. In 1095, after a Byzantine request for aid,Helen J. Nicholson, ''The Crusades'', (Greenwood Publishing, 2004), 6. Pope Urban II proclaimed the first expedition at the Council of Clermont. He encouraged military support for Byzantine emperor AlexiosI Komnenos and called for an armed pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Across all social strata in Western Europe, there was an enthusiastic response. Participants came from all over Europe and had a variety of motivations. These included religious salvation, satisfying ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Žemaitija
Samogitia, often known by its Lithuanian name ''Žemaitija'' ( Samogitian: ''Žemaitėjė''; see below for alternative and historical names) is one of the five cultural regions of Lithuania and formerly one of the two core administrative divisions of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania alongside Lithuania proper. Žemaitija is located in northwestern Lithuania. Its capital city is Telšiai and the largest city is Šiauliai (located on the border between Samogitia and Aukštaitija). Throughout centuries, Samogitia developed a separate culture featuring diverse architecture, folk costumes, dances, songs, traditions, and a distinct Samogitian language. Famous landmarks include Tauragė Castle, Plungė Manor and Hill of Crosses. Etymology and alternative names The region is primarily referred to by its Lithuanian name, ''Žemaitija'', in both local and national contexts. The Latin-derived term Samogitia, once widely used in historical sources, largely fell out of common administrativ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bastion
A bastion is a structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification, most commonly angular in shape and positioned at the corners of the fort. The fully developed bastion consists of two faces and two flanks, with fire from the flanks being able to protect the curtain wall and the adjacent bastions. Compared with the medieval fortified towers they replaced, bastion fortifications offered a greater degree of passive resistance and more scope for ranged defence in the age of gunpowder artillery. As military architecture, the bastion is one element in the style of fortification dominant from the mid 16th to mid 19th centuries. Evolution By the middle of the 15th century, artillery pieces had become powerful enough to make the traditional medieval round tower and curtain wall obsolete. This was exemplified by the campaigns of Charles VII of France who reduced the towns and castles held by the English during the latter stages of the Hundred Years War, and by th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moat
A moat is a deep, broad ditch dug around a castle, fortification, building, or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. Moats can be dry or filled with water. In some places, moats evolved into more extensive water defences, including natural or artificial lakes, dams and sluices. In older fortifications, such as hillforts, they are usually referred to simply as ditches, although the function is similar. In later periods, moats or water defences may be largely ornamental. They could also act as a sewer. Historical use Ancient Some of the earliest evidence of moats has been uncovered around ancient Egyptian fortresses. One example is at Buhen, a settlement excavated in Nubia. Other evidence of ancient moats is found in the ruins of Babylon, and in reliefs from ancient Egypt, Assyria, and other cultures in the region. Evidence of early moats around settlements has been discovered in many archaeological sites throughout Southeast Asia, including ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parking Lot
A parking lot or car park (British English), also known as a car lot, is a cleared area intended for parking vehicles. The term usually refers to an area dedicated only for parking, with a durable or semi-durable surface. In most jurisdictions where cars are the dominant mode of transportation, parking lots are a major feature of cities and suburban areas. Shopping malls, sports stadiums, and other similar venues often have immense parking lots. (See also: multistorey car park) Parking lots tend to be sources of water pollution because of their extensive impervious surfaces, and because most have limited or no facilities to control runoff. Many areas today also require minimum landscaping in parking lots to provide shade and help mitigate the extent to which their paved surfaces contribute to heat islands. Many municipalities require a minimum numbers of parking spaces for buildings such as stores (by floor area) and apartment complexes (by number of bedrooms). In th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vytautas The Great
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 revered as a national hero and was an important figure in the national rebirth in the 19th century. ''Vytautas'' is a popular male given name in Lithuania. In commemoration of the 500-year anniversary of his death, Vytautas Magnus University was named after him. Monuments in his honour were built in many towns in independent Lithuania during the interwar period from 1918 to 1939. Vytautas knew and spoke the Lithuanian language with his cousin Jogaila. Struggle for power 1377–1384 Vytautas' uncle Algirdas had been Grand Duke of Lithuania until his death in 1377. Algirdas and Vytautas' father Kęstutis had ruled jointly in the form of diarchy, with Algirdas governing the east and Kęstutis the west, primarily responsible for defense again ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Grunwald
The Battle of Grunwald was fought on 15 July 1410 during the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War. The alliance of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, led respectively by King Władysław II Jagiełło (Jogaila), and Grand Duke Vytautas, decisively defeated the German Teutonic Order, led by Grand Master Ulrich von Jungingen. Most of the Teutonic Order's leadership was killed or taken prisoner. Although defeated, the Teutonic Order withstood the Siege of Marienburg (1410), subsequent siege of the Malbork Castle and suffered minimal territorial losses at the Peace of Thorn (1411), with other territorial disputes continuing until the Treaty of Melno in 1422. The order, however, never recovered their former power, and the financial burden of war reparations caused internal conflicts and an economic downturn in the lands controlled by them. The battle shifted the Balance of power (international relations), balance of power in Central Europe, Central and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
