Vandžiogala (Polish: ''Wędziagoła'') is a small town in

Kaunas County Kaunas County () is one of ten counties of Lithuania. It is in the centre of the country, and its Capital (political), capital is Kaunas. On 1 July 2010, the county administration was abolished. Symbols The county's coat of arms can be blazoned ...

, Kaunas district municipality in central

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 north of

Kaunas city municipality Kaunas (; ) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius, the fourth largest List of cities in the Baltic states by population, city in the Baltic States and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaun ...

next to Urka brook. A Holy Trinity church was built in Vandžiogala in 1830. A town also has a post office (LT-54073), a community centre building, a school, a library, two cemeteries. A

wayside shrine A wayside shrine is a religious image, usually in some sort of small shelter, placed by a road or pathway, sometimes in a settlement or at a crossroads, but often in the middle of an empty stretch of country road, or at the top of a hill or mount ...

was erected during the 135th commemoration of

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 ...

. As of 2011 it had a population of 861.

History

Paminklas_nepriklausomybei_Vandziogaloje001

Vandžiogala was first mentioned in written sources 1384 when a battle with Teutonic crusaders happened. In the chronicles it is written that Vice Komtur of Ragainė Markvard Schulbach was sent to Lithuania to support

Vytautas 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 revere ...

against

Skirgaila Skirgaila, also known as Ivan/Iwan ( or 1354 – 11 January 1397; baptized 1383/1384 as ''Casimir''), was a regent of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania for his brother Jogaila from 1386 to 1392. He was the son of Algirdas, Grand Duke of Lithuan ...

. The battle was won by Germans: 120 Lithuanians died instantly and the rest either ran away or were taken as prisoners. Komtur took 300 out of those captured and Vytautas took 200. On July 9, 1941, the first large scale mass murder of the Jews in Kaunas district took place.

Rollkommando Hamann ''Rollkommando'' Hamann () was a small mobile unit that committed mass murders of Lithuanian Jews in the countryside in July–October 1941, with an estimated death toll of at least 60,000 Jews. The unit was also responsible for many murders in L ...

massacred 38 people. Before

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 ...

, Vandžiogala had a significant percentage of inhabitants with Polish roots. As of 2020, still more than 40 people openly admit to having Polish ancestors.

Etymology

The name is derived from words Vandys (a personal name) and galas meaning "the land belonging to Vandžiai". In the chronicles of crusaders the name is spelled ''Wandyagel'' while in the documents from the 16th century written in Old Church Slavonic it is spelled ''Vondziakgola''.

References

Towns in Lithuania Towns in Kaunas County Holocaust locations in Lithuania {{KaunasCounty-geo-stub