Bazilionai is a small town in Šiauliai County in northern-central Lithuania. It is situated on the bank of the

Dubysa River Dubysa, at 131 km, is the 15th longest river solely in Lithuania. It originates just a few kilometers from Lake Rėkyva near Šiauliai city. At first it flows south, but at Lyduvėnai turns southeast and near Ariogala - southwest. Dubysa ...

about of the road connecting

Šiauliai Šiauliai (; bat-smg, Šiaulē; german: Schaulen, ) is the fourth largest city in Lithuania, with a population of 107,086. From 1994 to 2010 it was the capital of Šiauliai County. Names Šiauliai is referred to by various names in different ...

with Sovetsk (former trade route to Tilsit). As of 2011, the estimated population was 390.

History

In 1744, King Augustus III granted a privilege to organize regular fairs in the town. Before monks of the

Order of Saint Basil the Great The Order of Saint Basil the Great ( uk, Чин Святого Василія Великого, translit=Chyn Sviatoho Vasyliia Velykoho; la, Ordo Sancti Basilii Magni, abbreviated OSBM), also known as the Basilian Order of Saint Josaphat, is ...

arrived to the town in 1749, it was known as Padubysys (literally: ''near Dubysa''). The Basilian Fathers established a parish school in 1773. After 20 years, the school had 192 students and was reorganized into six-year school. The monastery and school was closed by the Tsarist authorities after the failed uprising in 1830. The town church was transformed into an

Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism. Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or " canoni ...

one. After Lithuania regained independence in 1919, the church was reformed back to a Catholic one. Before World War II, the Jewish community of the village had 130 members. All of them were murdered in a mass execution perpetrated by an

einsatzgruppen (, ; also ' task forces') were (SS) paramilitary death squads of Nazi Germany that were responsible for mass murder, primarily by shooting, during World War II (1939–1945) in German-occupied Europe. The had an integral role in the imp ...

of Germans and Lithuanian nationalists in 1941.

References

External links

Website of Bazilionai community
Towns in Lithuania Towns in Šiauliai County Shavelsky Uyezd Holocaust locations in Lithuania {{ŠiauliaiCounty-geo-stub