Seredžius is a town in

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 ...

on the right bank of the Nemunas River near its confluence with the Dubysa River. According to the 2011 census, it had a population of 590.

Names

The

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

name for the city was סרעדניק (''Srednik''), corresponding to the Polish ''Średniki'', German ''Schrödnick'', and Russian Средники (''Sredniki''). In local Samogitian dialect the town is known as ''Seredius'', in Lithuanian - ''Seredžius''. Other recorded forms of the town's name include ''Srednike'', ''Seredzhyus'', ''Seredzhus'' and ''Seredius''. The name Seredžius is believed to be derived from середа (''sereda''), a word meaning "

Wednesday Wednesday is the day of the week between Tuesday and Thursday. According to international standard ISO 8601, it is the third day of the week. In English, the name is derived from Old English and Middle English , 'day of Woden', reflecting ...

" in many Slavic languages. This is probably because of the markets held there on Wednesday.

History

Southeast of the town, archaeologists discovered graves from the 3rd–4th centuries. According to the Palemonids legend, noble refugees from the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

settled on the hill, now known as the , and established 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, ...

. On the Palemon Hill the Lithuanian Pieštvė fortress stood during the Lithuanian Crusade. It was attacked by the

Teutonic Knights The Teutonic Order is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem was formed to aid Christians on their pilgrimages to t ...

numerous times in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. After the Battle of Grunwald, the location lost its military purpose and became private property of the Sapieha family. The Sapiehas built a residential palace, which did not survive. The town's first Catholic church was built around 1608–12. The church was destroyed in 1829 after a landslide caused by extensive flooding. The residents built a wooden church, which was replaced by a

Neo-Renaissance Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th-century Revivalism (architecture), architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival architecture, Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival ar ...

church dedicated to

John the Baptist John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...

in 1913. The town had a large

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

population prior to

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. In 1900 (when part of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

) the town's Jewish population numbered 1,174. The town's Jews were killed on September 4, 1941. On that day, 193 people were shot near the village of Skrebėnai: 6 men, 61 women and 126 children.

Notable people

* Jonas Virakas (1905 – 1988), architect. * (1902 – 1991), poet, playwright, opera soloist * Stasys Šimkus (1887 – 1943), composer. * (1886–1974), organist, choirmaster, singer, composer. * Al Jolson (born Eizer "Asa" Yoelson), singer, comedian, and actor

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Seredzius Towns in Lithuania Towns in Tauragė County Kovensky Uyezd Holocaust locations in Lithuania