Paberžė (

Lithuanian Lithuanian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Lithuania, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe ** Lithuanian language ** Lithuanians, a Baltic ethnic group, native to Lithuania and the immediate geographical region ** L ...

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

Vilnius District Municipality Vilnius District Municipality () is one of the 60 municipalities in Lithuania. It surrounds the capital city of Vilnius on three sides. The municipality is also bordered by Trakai District Municipality, Trakai district and Elektr ...

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, P ...

, it is located only about north of

Vilnius city municipality Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

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

History

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 (historiography), Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th to the 10th century. They marked the start o ...

. 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 (, ; 1 January 1467 – 1 April 1548) was List of Polish monarchs, 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 son of Casimir IV of P ...

granted the privilege of establishing a

tavern A tavern is a type 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 that ...

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 3 ...

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

Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a sovereign state in northeastern Europe that existed from the 13th century, succeeding the Kingdom of Lithuania, to the late 18th century, when the territory was suppressed during the 1795 Partitions of Poland, ...

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

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

and financed by the Lithuanian magnate

Mikołaj Krzysztof "the Orphan" Radziwiłł Mikołaj is the Polish cognate of given name Nicholas, used both as a given name and a surname. It may refer to people: In Polish (or Polish-Lithuanian) nobility: * Mikołaj Kamieniecki, Polish nobleman and the first Grand Hetman of the Crown * ...

. 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 was an insurrection principally in Russia's Kingdom of Poland that was aimed at putting an end to Russian occupation of part of Poland and regaining independence. It began on 22 January 1863 and continued until the last i ...

, it was transferred to the

Eastern Orthodox Church The Eastern Orthodox Church, officially the Orthodox Catholic Church, and also called the Greek Orthodox Church or simply the Orthodox Church, is List of Christian denominations by number of members, one of the three major doctrinal and ...

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

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, 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 vaqu ...

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, also known as the interbellum (), lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days) – from the end of World War I (WWI) to the beginning of World War II ( ...

period,

Neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century ...

church with well visible

modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

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

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

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 () are a Balts, Baltic ethnic group. They are native to Lithuania, where they number around 2,378,118 people. Another two million make up the Lithuanian diaspora, largely found in countries such as the Lithuanian Americans, United Sta ...

– 20,4%,

Poles Pole or poles may refer to: People *Poles (people), another term for Polish people, from the country of Poland * Pole (surname), including a list of people with the name * Pole (musician) (Stefan Betke, born 1967), German electronic music artist ...

– 60,6%,

Russians Russians ( ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Eastern Europe. Their mother tongue is Russian language, Russian, the most spoken Slavic languages, Slavic language. The majority of Russians adhere to Eastern Orthodox Church ...

– 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 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

Old Believers Old Believers or Old Ritualists ( Russian: староверы, ''starovery'' or старообрядцы, ''staroobryadtsy'') is the common term for several religious groups, which maintain the old liturgical and ritual practices of the Russian ...

and

Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodoxy, otherwise known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity or Byzantine Christianity, is one of the three main Branches of Christianity, branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholic Church, Catholicism and Protestantism ...

. 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

, 90 or 2,8% were

Belarusians Belarusians ( ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Belarus. They natively speak Belarusian language, Belarusian, an East Slavic language. More than 9 million people proclaim Belarusian ethnicity worldwide. Nearly 7.99&n ...

, 10

Ukrainians Ukrainians (, ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. Their native tongue is Ukrainian language, Ukrainian, and the majority adhere to Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, forming the List of contemporary eth ...

and 84 of other ethnicity or refused to answer.

References

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